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4 O. 






INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 



^^^^ 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 




y '^^ 










A Holy Max of India 



i 



INDIA 



ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 



BY 



JOHN P. JONES, D.D. 

SOUTH INDIA 

AUTHOR OF "INDIA'S PROBLEM, KRISHNA OR CHRIST," 

ETC., ETC. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1908 

Ail rights reserved 



y 



'^Ub»'*P'¥ Of ookhrs.ss| ^ * \ 

i IwoOooJes rtecuivA' ii 

I OCT 19 ii^uat 
* . i 

Copyright, 1908, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1908. 



J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



©etricatetr 

• TO MY DEAR CHILDREN 

WHO HAVE 

BRAVELY AND CHEERFULLY ENDURED 

THE SEPARATION AND THE LOSS OF HOME 

FOR THE SAKE OF INDIA 



PREFACE 

To the people of the West, the inhabitants of India 
are the least understood and the most easily mis- 
understood of all men. 

It is partly because they are antipodal to the West 
— the farthest removed in thought and life. They 
are also the most secretive, and find perennial delight 
in concealment and evasion. 

According to Hindu teaching, the Supreme Spirit 
forever sports in illusion. It continuously manifests 
itself through unreal and false forms, which delude 
and lead astray ignorant man. In harmony with this 
philosophy of the Divine — and may it not be as a 
result of it? — the people of India too often delight 
in unreal and deceptive exhibitions of themselves. 
At any rate, it is exceedingly difficult for a man of the 
West, especially he of the Anglo-Saxon type, to appre- 
hend the full significance and the correct drift of life 
and thought of this land. 

It is amusing, when not discouraging, to witness 
travellers, who have rushed through India in a winter 
tour, publish volumes of their misconceptions and ill- 
digested theories about the people with an oracular 
emphasis which is equalled only by their ignorance. 



X PREFACE 

The author of this book makes no claim to a right 
to speak ex cathedra upon this subject. Nevertheless, 
thirty years of matured experience in this land, living 
in constant touch with the people and studying with 
eagerness their life and thought, gives him an humble 
claim to speak once more upon the subject. 

Even now, however, his pride of knowledge is 
chastened by the oft-recurring surprises which the 
Oriental nature and life still bring to him. And he 
does not cease to pray, with a western saint, who, 
at the end of a half century of work for the people 
of India, daily cried out, — 

'* O Lord, help me to know these people and to 
come into intimate relations of life with them ! " 

If, in these pages, he can help others of the West 
to come face to face with the immense and intricate 
problems which confront all who desire to know, to 
help, and to bless India, and shall enable them to 
understand better the conditions and characteristics 
of life in the Land of the Vedas, he will feel amply 
repaid for his labours. 

I express my deep gratitude to the Rev. J. L. Bar- 
ton, D.D., for his kind encouragement in the pub- 
lishing of this book; and also to the Rev. W. W. 
Wallace, M.A., for his generous aid in the proof- 
reading. 

J. P. JONES. 



CONTENTS 



I. India's Unrest 

i. Extent of the Movement 
ii. Causes of Unrest 
iii. Conditions of Unrest . 
iv. Results 
V. How shall the Unrest be Removed 

II. The Home of Many Faiths 

Hinduism — Madura and Benares 
Demonolatry — Madura 
Christianity — Travancore and Cochin 
Judaism — Cochin 
Parseeism — Bombay . 
Jainism — Bombay 
Mohammedanism — Agra and Delhi 
Buddhism — Delhi, Sarnath 
Sikhism — Amritsar . 

III. Burma, the Beautiful 

The Extent of the British Empire 
Burma's Triple Produce 
The Land of Pagodas 

Mandalay 

A Land where Woman is Honoured 
A Land where Caste is Unknown 
The American Baptist Mission 
The Karens and their Conversion 
Ko San Ye . . . 

IV. The Hindu Caste System . 

What is Caste 

i. Origin of Caste 

(a) Religious Theory 
{b) Tribal Theory 
(f) Social Theory 



FACES 
1-29 

I 

5 

13 
18 

21 

30-71 
32 

33 
34 
38 
40 

41 
42 

61 

72-90 
72 
73 
73 
78 
80 
84 
84 
85 
87 
91-122 

91 
93 
95 
96 

97 



Xll 



CONTENTS 



(d) Occupational Theory 

(i?) Crossing Theory . 
ii. Characteristics of Caste 

Intermarriage 

Inter-dining . 

Contact 

Occupation . 
iii. Penalties of Caste 

Boycott 

Caste Servants Interdicted 

Domestic Isolation 

Prayaschitta. (Travelling) 

V. The Hindu Caste System {Continued) 
iv. Occasions of Punishment . 

Change of Faith . 

Marrying a Widow 

Beef-eating .... 

Officiating as Priest to Outcasts 

Marrying outside of One's Caste 
V. The Results of the Caste System 

Possibilities of Good 

It arrays Caste against Caste 

It narrows the Sympathies 

It degrades Manual Labour . 

It opposes Commerce . 

A Foe to Nationality . 

A Foe to Individualism 

It is Unethical 
vi. The Dominance of Caste . 

Seen even among Christians . 

Roman Catholicism and Protestantism 

Signs of its Decadence . 

Opposed by Western Progress 

Government Opposition 

Christianity its Foe 

VI. The Bhagavad Gita — The Hindu Bible 
i. What is this Song .... 
ii. What are its Purposes and Contents . 



VII. 



VIII. 





CONTENTS 










xiii 




PACES 




I. Its Teaching concerning God .... i6o 




Incarnation .... 








163 




2. The Doctrine of the Living Soul 








167 




3. The Doctrine of Liberation 








169 




(i) Through Knowledge 








169 




(2) Through Asceticism 








171 




(3) Through Works . 








174 




Caste . 










177 




Detachment 










179 




Bhakti 










181 




(4) Altruism 










183 




4. The Doctrine of Salvation 










184 




Reincarnation 










185 


iii. 


Conclusion .... 










187 


Popular Hinduism . 








190-219 


i. 


The Higher Faith 








. 190 




The Evolution of Faith . 










196 


ii. 


Popular Hinduism 

1. Caste 

2. Polytheism 

3. Idolatry . 

4. Devil-worship . 

5. Fetichism 

6. Immorality 

7. Treatment of Woman 

8. The Hindu Ascetic . 

9. Hindu Pessimism 










198 
. 198 
. 199 
. 200 

206 
. 209 
. 210 
. 213 
. 2x5 

217 




10. Astrology 












. 217 


Hindu Religious Ideals 










220-241 




The Ideal of God 










. 223 


ii. 


Ideal of Incarnation 










. 225 


iii. 


Ideals of Life 
Asceticism 
Ceremonialism 
Quietism 










. 227 
. 227 
. 231 
• 233 


iv. 


Ultimate Salvation 
Transmigration 










• 235 

• 236 




Absorption 












. 237 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

IX. The Home Life of Hindus 



The Home Sanctuary . 

The Building of the House 

The Joint Family System . 

Priest and Astrologer . 

Place of Woman in the Home 

The Devotion of Woman . 

The Influence of Woman . 

Marriage in the Home 

The Hindu Widow 

Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law 

Love of Jewellery 

Clothing and Cuisine 

Sickness and Death 

Funeral Obsequies 

Shradda 



X. Kali Yuga — India's Pessimism 

i. The Astounding Length of the Chronological System 

History and Legend in India 

ii. The Cyclic Character of Hindu Chronology . . . 286 

No Progress in Time 287 

The Source of Pessimism . . . . . . 288 

Hi. The Moral Characteristics of the Time System . . 290 

Every Yuga has its Own Character .... 290 

The Evil Character of Kali 293 

Cut Bono ........ 298 

Astrology 299 

Lucky Days . 299 

XI. Islam in India 302-337 

i. The History of Islam in India 305 

ii. The Present Condition of this Faith in India . . 307 

Ill-adapted to India 308 

Its Conception of Deity 309 

Intolerance and Tolerance 310 

Contact with Hinduism 312 

Compromise ........ 319 

Islam's Attempt at Reform 322 

Islam's Redeeming Qualities , . . , , 323 



PAGES 
242-275 

. 242 

• 243 
. 246 
. 251 
. 252 
. 254 
. 258 
. 260 

• 263 
. 264 
. 265 
. 268 
. 270 
. 272 

• 273 
276-301 

277 
281 



CONTENTS 



XV 



Muslim Sects .... 
iii. The Mohammedan Population . 
iv. Christian Effort for the Mussulman 

XII. The Christ and the Buddha . 
i. The Conditions of their Lives 
ii. The Common Principles which controlled Them 

Sincerity 

Ethics 

Universal Charity .... 
iii. The Teachings v/hich differentiate Them 

1. Teaching concerning God . 

2. Their Conceptions of Human Life 

3. Their Ideals of Life . 

Character and Wisdom . 
Final Consummation 

XIII. Modern Religious Movement 
Hindu Reformers 
i. Hindu Sects . 
ii. Modern Movements 

Ram Mohan Roy 

Brahmo Somaj . 

Chunder Sen 

Athi Somaj 

Sadharna Somaj . 

New Dispensation 
iii. Progress of the Movement 

Weak in Numbers 

Indian Spirit 

Christian Basis . 

" The Oriental Christ " 

Chunder Sen's Words 

Other Testimony 

The New Dispensation 
iv. The Arya Somaj 

Its Progress 

Its Principles 

Its Antagonism to Christianity 



• 327 
. 328 

• 333 

338-373 
341 
345 
345 
345 
349 
352 
353 
356 
367 
368 

370 

374-4" 
374 
376 

378 

379 
380 
382 
383 
385 
385 
387 
387 
388 

389 
391 
391 
396 
396 
400 
402 
402 
403 



XVI 



CONTENTS 



The Theosophical Society 
Its Reactionary Spirit 
Mrs. Besant . 
The "Masters" 



XIV. The Progress of Christianity in India . . 412-443 

i. Early History of Christianity 412 

Converts 417 

The Character of the Christian Community . . 418 

Influence of Christianity 419 

" Swadesha " 420 

Protestant Effort 422 

ii. Ultimate Triumph of Christianity .... 425 

Not the Western Type 425 

The Kingdom of God 429 

iii. A Conquest of the Spirit 430 

1 . Conquest of Principles . . . . . 430 

2. Conquest of the Christ Ideal .... 434 

3. Conquest of the Incarnation of Christ . . 437 

4. Conquest of the Cross of Christ . . . 439 

5. Conquest of the Christian Conception of Sin . 441 

Index 445 



404 
406 
406 
408 



a 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Holy Man of India Frontispiece 



PAGB 



The Golden Lily Tank in the Madura Temple . . 35 

Taj Mahal, Agra . . 43 

Marble Screen in Taj Mahal 47 

Shah Jehan's Fort, Agra 51 

Akbar's Tomb 55 

Kutab-minar, Delhi 59 

Cashmere Gate, Delhi 63 - 

Schwey Dagon Pagoda, Rangoon 75 

Theebaw's Palace, Mandalay 81 

Jungle People of India 141"" 

A Dra vidian Shrine, South India 191 1^ 

Two Hindu Idols, South India 203 

Humayan's Tomb, Delhi . 303 y 

The Greatest Image of Buddha 339 

A Christian Village School in South India . . .415 



INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

CHAPTER I 

India's unrest 

India has been called the land of quiet repose, 
content to remain anchored to the hoary past, and 
proud of her immobility. Invasion after invasion 
has swept over her; but — 

"The East bowed low before the blast, 
In patient, deep disdain; 
She let the legions thunder past, 
And plunged in thought again." 

Yet this same India is now throbbing with dis- 
content, and is breathing, in all departments of her 
life, a deep spirit of unrest. This spirit has recently 
become acute and seemed, for a while, in danger 
of bursting into open rebellion, not unlike the 
Mutiny of half a century ago. 

I 

This movement is but a part of the new awaken- 
ing of the East. The world has seen its marvel- 



2 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

lously rapid development and fruitage in Japan. It 
is witnessing the same process in China and Korea. 
The people of India, likewise, have been touched 
by its power and are no longer willing to rest con- 
tentedly as a subject people or a stagnant race. 

This movement is not only political, it per- 
meates every department of life ; and it partakes 
of the general unrest which has taken possession of 
all the civilized nations of the earth. It is really 
the dawning of India's consciousness of strength 
and of a purpose to take her place, and to play a 
worthy part, in the great world drama. 

This spirit found its incarnation and warmest 
expression in the opposition to the government 
scheme, two years ago, under Lord Curzon, for the 
partition of Bengal. The Bengalees keenly resented 
the division of their Province; for it robbed the 
clever Babu of many of the plums of office. He 
petitioned, and fomented agitation and opposition to 
the scheme. Then, in his spite against the govern- 
ment, he organized a boycott against all forms of 
foreign industry and commerce. This has been 
conducted with mad disregard to the people's own 
economic interest, and has, moreover, developed into 
bitter racial animosity. 



INDIA'S UNREST 3 

The Bengalee has striven hard to carry into 
other Provinces also his spirit of antagonism to the 
State. Though he has not succeeded in convincing 
many others of the wisdom of his method, he has 
spread the spirit of discontent and of dissatisfaction 
far beyond his own boundary. Even sections of the 
land which denounce the boycott as folly, if not sui- 
cide, have taken up the political slogan of the Babu 
[Bande Mataram — Hail, Mother !) and are demand- 
ing, mostly in inarticulate speech, such rights and 
privileges as they imagine themselves to be de- 
prived of. 

The movement is, in some respects, a reaction- 
ary one; and race hatred is one of its most manifest 
results. It is not merely a rising of the East 
against the West ; it is also a conflict between Mo- 
hammedans and Hindus. In Eastern Bengal, where 
the Mussulmans are in a large majority, and 
where the Hindus have become the most embit- 
tered, the former have stood aloof from the latter 
and have opposed the boycott. This has led to in- 
creasing hatred between the members of these two 
faiths, — a feeling which has spread all over the 
country, and which has carried them into opposing 
camps. This is, in one way, fortunate for the gov- 



4 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

ernment, since it has given rise to definite and warm 
expressions of loyalty by the whole Mohammedan 
community. 

Disgruntled graduates of the University and school- 
boys take the most prominent place in this movement. 
The Universities annually send forth an army of men 
supplied with degrees — last year it was 1570 B.A.'s; 
and it is the conviction of nine-tenths of them that it 
is the duty of the government to give them employ- 
ment as soon as they graduate. As this is impossible, 
many of them nurse their disappointment into discon- 
tent and opposition to the powers that be. Many of 
them become dangerous demagogues and fomenters of 
sedition. Not a few such are found in every Province 
of the country. And they find in the High School 
and College students the best material to work upon. 
These boys have been the most numerous and excited 
advocates of this movement. As in Russia, so in India 
the educational institutions are becoming the hotbeds 
of dissatisfaction and opposition to the State. But 
there is this difference. In Russia the University 
student is much more truly an exponent of public 
sentiment, and more ready to suffer for that sentiment, 
than are the dependent youth of colleges in India. 

This movement has not, to any considerable extent. 



INDIA'S UNREST 5 

reached the masses. Nine-tenths of the population of 
India are satisfied with the government and have no 
desire to change the present order of things. Indeed, 
they are deeply ignorant of the grievances which the 
higher classes nurse into bitterness. And yet it 
should not be forgotten that the ignorance of the 
people, coupled with their narrow superstition and 
lively imagination, make them very inflammable ma- 
terial under the influence of eloquent demagogues. 

II 

One of the most marked causes of this activity and 
discontent is the recent victory of Japan over Russia. 
It is hard for the West to realize how much that event 
has stirred the imagination and quickened the ambition 
of all the people of the East. They regard that war as 
the great conflict of the East and the West. India 
had not the slightest idea that Japan would come 
triumphant out of that conflict. But the victory of 
Japan instantly suggested to all men of culture in 
India the question, " Why should our land be subject 
to a far-off, and a small, western country } Why should 
we be content with our dependence and not reveal our 
manhood and our prowess, as Japan did ? " These are 
inquiries which have opened up new visions of power 



6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

and greatness to the people of India. Japan and its 
people have been immensely popular in India since 
their recent victory. And Hindus believe that the 
peace perfected at Portsmouth was the harbinger of a 
new era of liberty and independence for all the East. 

The growing influence of western education in India 
has had much to do with the present state of things. 
It is true that India is still a land of ignorance. It is / 
a lamentable fact that only i in lo of the males and i J 
in 144 of the females can read. Only 22.6 per cent of 
the boys of school-going age attend school, and only 
2.6 per cent of the girls. And yet the enrolment of 
more than five million scholars in the public schools is 
a significantly hopeful fact as compared with the past 
history of India. 

This education is distinctly on western lines. And 
connected with the five Universities of India there are 
many thousands of young men and women who are de- . 
voting themselves to a deep study of western thought and ' 
of western ideas of liberty. The Calcutta University 
alone has, in its afifiliated colleges, more students regis- 
tered than Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Toronto com- 
bined. In that city, which is the centre of the present 
unrest, there are 12,000 young men in the Colleges, 
and 30,000 pupils in the High Schools. This host of 



INDIA'S UNREST 7 

young men and women are imbibing modern ideas of 
manliness, independence, and liberty such as India 
never knew in the past; and they go out into the 
world with new ambitions for their country and in- 
spired with not a little " divine unrest." 

In close connection with this educational influence 
is that of western civilization and Christian ideals. 
The government of this land is built upon Christian 
principles and is animated by that spirit of civilization 
which dominates the West. And we know that these 
make for manhood and independence everywhere. It 
would be a sad thing for Great Britain, as it would be 
for the Christian missionary in India, if these lofty 
principles, which they inculcate, did not acquire 
increasing power over these youth. 

And it should not be forgotten that an increasing 
number of the elect youth of India go to England 
for the completion of their training, and return well 
equipped with Anglo-Saxon ideas of human rights 
and of manhood's claims. 

Nor is this merely a movement of the people of 
India. There is a strong body of Englishmen, sev- 
eral of whom are members of Parliament, banded 
together in England, for the purpose of promoting 
the political influence of the people of India in the 



8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

conduct of the affairs of their own country. These 
men believe that India has a right to a much larger 
meed of self-government than she now enjoys. And 
they seize upon every opportunity to urge upon the 
Home Government the duty of granting added power 
to the people, and also to advise the leaders of In- 
dian thought as to their wisest methods of procedure. 
There are not a few radicals in Britain who believe 
that India should govern herself as an independent 
colony. And they rouse within Hindu youth who 
go to England a radical spirit of discontent and dis- 
loyalty. It was only the other day that Lord Ampthill 
warned these men, because of the insidious influence 
which they were exercising for the overthrow of the 
British power in the East. 

The National Congress, which has just reached its 
majority, has a profound influence in the development 
of a national consciousness, and in the furtherance of 
the cause of independence and political power in the 
land. The very existence of this institution is one of 
the highest compliments to British rule in India. It 
would be impossible for one to imagine the Russian 
government permitting such a body of men to gather 
every year in solemn conclave to devote several days 
to a vehement criticism of all the principal acts of the 



INDIA'S UNREST 9 

State, to give vent to disloyal sentiments, and to pro- 
mote the spirit of disaffection throughout the country. 
This Congress has devoted nearly all its time to a 
denunciation of the powers that be ; and during these 
twenty-one years the writer has not seen one word of 
commendation or one vote of appreciation of the State 
in the reports of the proceedings of the Congress. 
And the demands of the Congress, inspired as they 
are by Anglo-Saxon friends in Great Britain, are 
becoming annually more definite and urgent. 

Until the meeting of 1906 there was no divergence 
of sentiment among Congress-wallahs. No dissentient 
voice or conflicting opinions were allowed. It is to 
the honour and highest interest of the Congress that 
this stage has now been passed and the healthy rivalry 
of parties is felt and heard in Congress councils. It 
is to be regretted that at the last Congress meeting, 
in Surat, these two parties — the Moderates and the 
Extremists — came into bitter conflict. It was largely 
due to the past supineness of the Moderates who per- 
mitted the other party (which is a small but noisy mi- 
nority) to resort to bluster in order to force their pet 
and bitter schemes of disorder upon the Congress. 
When, ultimately, the Moderates determined to exer- 
cise the rights of the majority, the otliers resorted to 



lo INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

force and caused the Congress to be suspended in dis- 
order, thus reveahng the sad spectacle of the present 
incapacity of the leaders of the people to govern 
themselves and the country. 

This is, however, perhaps the best thing that could 
have happened for the highest interest of the Con- 
gress itself. The two parties are now clearly defined 
— the one seeking, through constitutional agitation, 
self-government on colonial lines, like Canada; the 
other determined to overthrow the government of the 
foreigner and to establish its own upon the ruins. And 
agitation in this behalf is to be conducted in every 
possible way, constitutional or otherwise. 

The Moderates are now thoroughly roused and 
have driven out from their councils the irreconcilables 
and fire-eaters, and can now work with more harmony 
and success for the attainment of their wiser plans 
and more reasonable aims. 

A few years ago, the State ignored, when it did 
not ridicule, the National Congress. To-day none 
recognizes its power more than does the government. 

And it is most suggestive and instructive to see 
this body, of fully three thousand men, gathered to- 
gether from all parts of this great peninsula — men 
who represent peoples that speak more than four hun- 



INDIA'S UNREST ii 

dred languages and dialects! They conduct their 
sessions in English, which is the only universal 
tongue of the country. And a purer English is 
hardly spoken in any deliberative or legislative body 
in any other land; and some of the addresses are de- 
livered with a force, and are adorned with a logic and 
a rhetoric, which are truly eloquent. Verily, the 
weapon of popular power, though largely used against 
the government, is the best compliment possible to 
the State which has created it. 

The Press also has marvellously grown in power 
and in dignity during the last quarter of a century. 
At the present time there are scores of dailies, and 
many more weeklies and monthlies, published in the 
English tongue by the natives of the land. And they 
discuss, with intelligence and discrimination, if not 
with moderation, all matters of State and of political 
interest. Recently some of these papers have 
become thoroughly radical and oppose the govern- 
ment at all points. 

But it is the vernacular Press, representing, as it 
does, hundreds of newspapers in all the tongues of 
India, that carries its influence into the villages and 
homes of the uneducated millions. The present con- 
dition of discontent with the government has been 



12 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

disseminated among the common people more by 
these vernacular papers than by any other agency. 
Many of these are thoroughly disloyal and seditious. 
Very occasionally they are prosecuted for their inflam- 
matory editorials, and their editors are imprisoned. 

As a matter of fact, there is hardly any country 
where the Press has greater liberties than in India ; 
and there is no land on earth where that liberty is 
more abused. The very toleration of the government 
is turned as a keen weapon against it. 

The same thing is true of the freedom of public 
speech. There is not another land, save perhaps 
America, whose citizens have greater privileges in this 
matter. The seditious speeches which have been 
made in many parts of India during the last two years, 
by Bengalees specially, and by a few other radicals, 
have been such as would in Europe lead to imprison- 
ment if not to deportation. Bepin Chandra Pal, of 
Calcutta, has just closed a tour during which he has 
made many addresses, attended, in all cases, by thou- 
sands of students and disaffected members of the 
community, and has not only denounced the govern- 
ment as the very incarnation of unrighteousness and 
cruelty, but has also urged the people to do all they 
can, both constitutionally and otherwise, to defeat and 



INDIA'S UNREST 13 

overthrow it and to establish a native rule upon its 
ruin. Any government, in order to ignore such 
language uttered in immense public assemblies, must 
feel very secure in its power. Mr. Pal is only one 
of many who have thus far been granted absolute 
freedom to sow broadcast the seed of revolution. 

Ill 

What is there in the recent condition of the coun- 
try and of the people, which warrants this unrest and 
discontent ? 

Disinterested persons will not say that the State is 
unprogressive or is administering its affairs unwisely. 
In its recent Annual Financial Statement we discover 
evidences of prosperity in all departments of State. 
There is no extensive famine to distress the people 
and harass the government. The revenue of the year 
exceeds, by nearly 30 million rupees, the estimates; 
there was a surplus at the end of the year of 20 
million rupees. Owing to this the government has 
reduced the opium cultivation, which has wrought, for 
many years, so much injustice to China. It has also 
increased postal facilities, which renders them cheaper 
and more convenient than in any other land. More- 
over, the obnoxious salt tax has been reduced by 50 



14 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

per cent; and it is hoped that the whole tax will be 
remitted shortly. The grant for education is also 
much enhanced beyond any former year, and the State 
is even planning for the introduction of a Free 
Primary Education, which will be an unspeakable 
boon to the people. 

And when it is said that taxation in India has been 
reduced, we should also remember that in this land 
"the taxation per head is lighter than in any other 
civilized country in the world. In Russia, it is eight 
times as great ; in England, twenty times ; in Italy, nine- 
teen ; in France, twenty-five ; in the United States and 
Germany, thirteen times." In other words, taxation 
in India comes to only one dollar, or three rupees, per 
head. 

But it is claimed that India is a land of deepest 
poverty. This is perfectly true. But it is not true 
that her poverty is increasing. The Parsee Chairman 
of the Bombay Stock Exchange, in his last annual 
address, said that " it was the conviction of merchants, 
bankers, tradesmen, and captains of industry that India 
is slowly but steadily advancing along paths of 
material prosperity, and for the last few years it has 
taken an accelerated pace." The poverty of the 
people is a very convenient slogan of the political 



INDIA'S UNREST 15 

party ; but there is everything to prove that the condi- 
tion of the people, deplorable though it be, is, never- 
theless, slowly improving. 

The State is, moreover, constantly yielding to the 
growing demand of the people for a larger share in 
the conduct of public business and in the emolu- 
ments of office. Even at the present time the Secre- 
tary of State for India has introduced a scheme, at 
the instance of the government, which will add 
materially to the power of India in the conduct of 
its own affairs. 

The British were never more firmly entrenched 
and possessed of more power in India than at the 
present time. The lesson of the Mutiny, of a half-a- 
century ago, was not lost upon the administrators 
of India. Since then, no Indian regiment can be 
stationed within a thousand miles of its own home, 
and thus be able to enter into collusion with the 
people. And the artillery branch of the army is 
entirely in the hands of the British force. Moreover, 
as we have seen, the Mohammedans and the Sikhs 
are loyal to the government, and would stand with 
the British against the Hindus in any conflict of 
arms. 

The Hindus themselves realize this situation per- 



i6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

fectly well. One of the best-known Hindu gentle- 
men recently wrote as follows : " The truth is in 
a nutshell and may be described in a few words. 
The British cannot be driven out of India by the 
Indians, nor by any foreign Power. This fact is 
known to more than 90 per cent of the people. Of 
all the foreigners, the British are the best. We, as 
we are now, are the least able to govern India, being 
not equal to the worst and weakest foreign Power. 
The best class of Hindus are not only sensible of 
their own weakness, from a military standpoint ; they 
are also dissatisfied with the action of extremists and 
believe that the present unrest is evil. A well-known 
Hindu writer describes the situation in the follow- 
ing words: "The class of people the Indian Ex- 
tremists appeal to, consists of irresponsible and 
impressionable students and the ignorant populace; 
and the agitator, who is thoroughly cognizant of this 
fact, uses it for his purposes. He appeals to their 
feelings, and succeeds in making them believe in 
the soundness of his fallacies and mischievous preach- 
ings. The authorities have therefore to see that 
this class of people is protected from the insidious 
appeals of mischievous pseudo-patriots. After over 
a century of beneficent British rule in India, it is 



II 



INDIA'S UNREST 17 

scarcely necessary to attempt to justify its existence 
or continuance. At the same time, it has to be 
recognized that discontent prevails among the peo- 
ple ; though, speaking generally, it does not by any 
means partake of the character of disaffection or 
disloyalty. Discontent is by no means inconsistent 
with loyalty to government. On the other hand, 
it may even be said, with a certain degree of truth, 
that the deep-rooted and abiding sense of loyalty in 
the people has engendered the spirit of discontent, 
the healthy discontent with their lot." 

It should also be remembered that the Hindu caste 
system is an insuperable barrier to the progress of 
the people toward independence. The unity of the 
Mohammedans of India, who are only one-fifth of 
the population, is in healthful contrast to the myriad 
caste divisions and social barriers which separate 
Hindus one from another. One must be compelled 
to deny the sincerity of many who claim that this 
people is a nation which prides itself upon its pa- 
triotism, so long as the caste system dominates them 
and their ideas. The only tie which binds together 
these people is the spirit of opposition to this foreign 
government. Among the classes and the masses 
there is absolutely no coherence or unity of senti- 



i8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

ment in any line of constructive activity. So that 
in the matter of self-government they would prove 
themselves to be sadly incompetent. 

IV 

The action of the Indian government, in view of 
the present situation, has been the subject of criti- 
cism. Anglo-Indians feel that the Viceroy and his 
Council have, for some reason or other, been too de- 
liberate in their action. For two years things have 
been going from bad to worse. When, recently, 
Sir Bampfylde Fuller, the Lieutenant-Governor of 
East Bengal, took prompt and vigorous action to 
suppress the uprising in his Province, which was the 
centre of trouble, the Indian government declined to 
support him. He therefore resigned, and India lost 
one of the men who are the most competent to deal 
wisely and well with sedition-mongers. The State 
may have thought, and was probably right in think- 
ing, that while the Bengal Babu is capable of un- 
limited noise, he has a mortal aversion to converting 
his noise into action. So the government preferred 
patiently to endure odium rather than suppress the 
movement. 

It was different in the Panjaub, whose people are 



INDIA'S UNREST 19 

less talkative, but are more given to action. These 
warrior tribes were being rapidly disaffected by politi- 
cal agitators; and they doubtless had definite griev- 
ances of their own to agitate them. The time came 
when government was compelled to do something to 
suppress the rising tide of feeling. It decided to act 
upon a law of nearly a century ago, and deported two 
of the leaders of the movement. They were at once 
sent to Burma, where they were held in surveillance 
for six months and then released. This action of the 
State was effective; for it quieted the people and 
nipped what promised to be a rebellion, in the bud. 
But it raised a storm of denunciation from all the 
Hindu papers, which spoke of it as a violation of 
the Queen's Proclamation and an act subversive of 
the most sacred rights of the people of the country 
and of the most elementary form of justice ! One 
writer claims that " the meanest ^ British subject is 
entitled to a writ of Habeas Corpus, and thus secure 
an effective protection against arbitrary imprisonment 
and arrest by the government." This is certainly 
true in ordinary times of peace ; but the government 
had every reason to believe that the state of things 
in the Panjaub was anything but peaceable, and that 
it must act in view of the extraordinary condition 



20 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of the Province. And its method of procedure has 
proved itself to be the most bloodless and inexpensive 
possible. It has been claimed that the chief deported 
man, Mr. Lala Rajpat Rai, is not an extremist; but 
this has to be proved, and it may be presumed that 
the government was more conversant with his acts 
and their influence upon the people, and the native 
army, than some of his defenders are. All must 
regret the necessity of so unconstitutional a method 
of dealing with this great evil ; but when such a man 
as the Hon. Mr. Morley, the Secretary of State for 
India, agrees with the Indian government in this 
matter, it may be presumed to have been necessary. 

The government has also proclaimed and prohibited 
the assembling together of the people for political 
purposes in the most disaffected parts of the country, 
and more especially where the Hindus and Moham- 
medans are fighting each other. None can question 
the wisdom of thus saving the people from bitter feuds 
and the power of agitators. 

Another very important action of the State has been 
to warn the students of the Universities against par- 
ticipating in political agitation, and to threaten the 
withdrawal of affiliation from institutions of learning 
in which political agitation is encouraged. Nobody 



INDIA'S UNREST 21 

will dispute the wisdom of this action; for the school- 
boys of India seem as disloyal as they are irresponsible, 
and are the most pliant tools of radical demagogues. 
The Press also is receiving the attention of the 
government. The vernacular Press is in special need 
of being taught the lesson of its responsibility to the 
people and to the State. And the best elements of 
the community, both Anglo-Indian and Indian, believe 
heartily that editors and proprietors of papers should 
be brought to account for their seditious utterances. 

V 

Many are now asking, " How shall this trouble be 
removed and peace and good-will be restored to the 
land .? " 

Nothing is more necessary than the cultivation of 
mutual understanding between the two races. It is 
very unfortunate that, in this matter, the situation has 
not improved during the last quarter of a century. 
Indeed, the racial problem is more acute now, as it is in 
America, than it was ever before. All seem too ready 
to accept, as conclusive, the statement of Kipling, — 

" O ! the East is East and the West is West, 
And never the twain shall meet, 
Till earth and sky stand presently 
Before God's great judgment seat." 



22 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

And they too easily ignore the other part which con- 
veys his lesson, — 

" But there is neither East nor West, 
Nor border, nor breed, nor birth, 
Where two strong men stand face to face. 
Though they come from the ends of the earth." 

The parties concerned in India to-day must learn 
the lesson of mutual forbearance and study to under- 
stand each other's peculiarities and enter more fully into 
each other's thoughts, sentiments, and idiosyncrasies. 

The Anglo-Indian stands most in need of this lesson 
of aptitude. The Anglo-Saxon is notoriously conceited 
and given to thinking that he has nothing to learn 
from other people, especially those who are politically 
subject to him. He looks with contempt upon the 
"mild Hindu," and maintains that it is the business of 
Brahman and Sudra alike meekly to submit to, and 
obey, his lordship. He tramples upon their sensibili- 
ties and declines to learn any lessons of wisdom from 
them. On the other hand, Brahman and Sudra have 
ineradicable prejudices, which they nurse with extraor- 
dinary fondness and cherish with unyielding tenacity. 
The leader of this people, the Brahman, is, in his way, 
even more haughty than the Anglo-Indian. 

This situation is full of difficulty. Here we have 



INDIA'S UNREST 23 

two races, the Aryan of the East and the Aryan of the 
West, standing face to face. Each in its way claims 
dominance. The Westerner claims superiority by 
right of conquest and of advanced civilization and 
general progress. And he is not backward in pre- 
senting his vaunted claims ! The Easterner, on the 
other hand, has ruled India by right of intelligence 
and by every claim of social and religious distinction, 
for at least thirty centuries. He stands to-day a match 
for any individual, East or West, in intellectual prowess. 
But, more than this, socially and religiously he regards 
himself as the first son of heaven. Contact with an 
Englishman, even with the King-Emperor himself, is 
for him pollution, which must be removed by elaborate 
and exacting religious ceremonies. To eat with any 
such would be a sin of the deepest dye. How can one 
expect such a man to meet with a foreigner on even 
terms, or to treat him with equality and true friend- 
ship ? Before India loves its conquerors, and sympathy 
and good understanding are established between them, 
both parties need to be born again. At least they 
must endeavour to lay aside their prejudices and to 
cultivate the kinship of their united destiny. The 
writer recently listened to an eloquent address de- 
livered by a cultured Hindu gentleman, in which he 



24 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

implored Anglo-Indians to cultivate their friendship 
and to forget the different shades of their complexion. 
The prejudice of colour is, he maintains, as strong in 
India as it is in America, and is perhaps more bitter 
than ever. A man, said he truly, should not be con- 
demned by his brother because of his slightly different 
shade of colour, which is only skin deep. 

It is also certain that Great Britain should and 
must give to the inhabitants of this land more in- 
fluence and higher position in the direction of the 
affairs of the State. After a training of more than 
a century by England herself, India is prepared for a 
larger place in the direction of her own political des- 
tiny. Western civilization, western education, and 
the Christian religion have wrought wonders in 
India in the development of a new life and a new 
consciousness among many of the people. There are 
thousands of men, to-day, who are in every way com- 
petent to occupy high positions in government. And 
it is impossible that they should be kept loyal and 
contented under a regime which constantly reminds 
them of their subjection and their lack of worthiness 
to fill any but subordinate positions. It is true, as we 
have seen, that government is extending the privi- 
leges and multiplying the opportunities of such men. 



INDIA'S UNREST 25 

But it is not doing this with the pace, the grace, and 
the heartiness that circumstances demand. 

On the other hand, Indians must seek, increasingly, 
to cultivate social and moral aptitude, rather than to 
be forever claiming and demanding rights. The best 
friends of India believe that she has just as many 
political rights as she is able wisely to exercise. 
Representative Institutions have already been estab- 
lished here both in the conduct of Municipalities, Dis- 
trict Boards, and of the Provincial and the Imperial 
Governments. The people are being trained for the 
wisest exercise of political rights. But many who 
have carefully observed the political corruption which 
they reveal in the exercise of already acquired rights, 
think that no greater evil could befall India than that 
of a sudden bestowal, by the State, of a great exten- 
sion of these privileges. 

The root of India's present incapacity for self-gov- 
ernment is not intellectual, but social and moral. No 
one doubts that there is ability enough; but many 
believe that India must develop much upon the lower 
ranges of domestic sanity and social ethics before it is 
prepared for enhanced political privileges. The igno- 
rance and the disabilities of women in India are a 
crying injustice, whose influence penetrates every de- 



26 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

partment of Indian life, and for the removal of which 
educated Indians will hardly raise a finger. 

The caste system, with its numberless stereotyped 
divisions, its myriad insurmountable barriers between 
class and class, and its countless petty jealousies and 
mutual antagonisms, is well known to all. And so 
long as Hindus continue to worship this demon, caste, 
it is impossible for them to become a united body to 
which, with any courtesy, the name Nation can be 
applied. Nor can they blend into such action as can 
in any sense be called National or patriotic. India is 
wofully lacking in the first essential of self-govern- 
ment — public spirit. 

In other words, the most urgent need of India at 
present is social reform, which depends entirely upon 
the people, and not political reform, which must come 
from the State. And yet the social reform movement 
in India is less rapid to-day than at any time during 
the last quarter of a century. And those who cry 
loudest for political rights are the ones who cast a 
sinister eye upon the social reform movement. 

And it must be remembered that the people who 
cry most loudly for national independence to-day are 
the very ones whose antecedents and whose funda- 
mental conceptions of life and of society would forbid 



INDIA'S UNREST 27 

them to grant even the most elementary social, not 
to say political, rights to one-half of the population of 
the land. The way the Brahman and the higher Su- 
dras, who are clamouring for what they regard God- 
given rights from the British government, deny in 
principle and practice, to their fellow-citizens, the 
so-called outcasts and other members of the com- 
munity, the most elementary principles of liberty and 
privilege which they themselves now enjoy, is a sig- 
nificant comment upon their political sanity and sense 
of congruity. 

In connection with this same problem, Indians 
should not forget that in the multiplicity of antipa- 
thies which exist between the many races of India, 
and in the religious conflicts, which too often arise, 
there is need, and there will be need for many years, 
of one supreme power which has the ability to hold 
the balance of justice evenly between race and race, 
and to command social and religious liberty to the 
three hundred millions of the land. And this is what 
Great Britain has done and is doing for India. Pax 
Britannica has been one of the greatest boons that the 
West has conferred upon the East. 

It may also be well to add that Indians should have 
regard to the limits of the rights of a subject people. 



28 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

It is useless to talk of self-government, until they are 
able to exercise the same; and even the most rabid 
Hindu cannot dream that India is ripe for self-govern- 
ment and could maintain it for a month if the British 
were to leave the country. And if the British must 
remain here at all, it must be as the dominant power. 
Canada and Australia, in their independence, may be 
ideals for India to pattern after; but India cannot 
enjoy the rights of those two independent colonies 
until her character becomes as steady, her ideas of 
liberty and her practice of social equality and her con- 
ception of human rights become as clarified, as they 
are in those two countries. 

The recent proposal of the Government of India to 
enlarge the Legislative Councils and to create an 
Imperial Advisory Council reveals the purpose of the 
State to grant to the people all that is consistent 
with the paramountcy of the British in India. But 
it is this very paramountcy which the extremists deny 
to Great Britain. Herein lies the gist of the trouble. 
It will erelong create a serious hnpasse. 

Great Britain cannot remain in this land and efface 
herself. At the same time, when India is prepared 
for absolute self-government, she will receive the 
blessing, and Great Britain will leave the land with 



INDIA'S UNREST 29 

a blessed consciousness that she has wrought for 
India the greatest blessing and the noblest achieve- 
ment that any people has wrought for another and a 
foreign people in all the history of the world. And 
until that time comes, both India and Great Britain 
need to thank God that He has so strangely blended 
together their destinies for the highest elevation of 
both races. 



CHAPTER II 

THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 

The land of the Vedas justly boasts of being the 
mother, or the foster-mother, of nine great religions. 

It has given birth to the greatest ethnic religion 
the world has seen ; it is also the motherland of one 
of the three great missionary faiths of the world. 
These two religions — Hinduism and Buddhism — 
count among their followers more than a third of the 
human race, and are, in some respects, as vigorous 
now as at any time in their history. 

It is the foster-mother of Mohammedanism and 
counts among her sons and daughters more of the 
followers of the Prophet of Mecca than are found in 
any other land. 

It has also been the asylum of many followers of 
the Nazarene for at least sixteen centuries ; many 
even claim that Christianity has found a home here 
since apostolic days. 

There is no land comparable with India in the 

variegated expressions of its beliefs which add pic- 

30 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 31 

turesqueness to the country and diversity to the 
people. 

I purpose to take the reader with me on a tour 
with a view to furnishing glimpses of these religions 
at those places where they reveal special interest to 
the tourist.^ 

India is a land of immense distances. But its 
thirty thousand miles of railroad will enable the 
traveller, within a couple of months, to scan all its 
points of interest, and to feast his eyes upon visions of 
Oriental charm and splendour, of architectural beauty 
and grandeur, and of such monuments of religious 
devotion as no other land can present to the traveller 
and student. 

Let not the Westerner indulge his fears about the 
discomforts and dangers of travel in this tropical land. 

^ The principal faiths of the land, with their adherents, were as fol- 
lows, according to census of 1901 : — 

Hindu 207,147,026 

Sikh 2,195,339 

Jain 1,334,148 

Buddhist 9,476,759 

Parsee 94,190 

Mohammedan 62,458,077 

Jewish 18,228 

Christian 2,923,241 

These figures include Burma. 



32 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

To an English-speaking tourist there are a few lands 
only which furnish more conveniences and facilities 
for travel than this same India; and travelling is 
cheaper here than in any other country. Comfortable 
second-class travelling rarely costs more than one 
cent a mile. And many, like the writer, have travelled 
thousands of miles in third-class compartments at less 
than half a cent a mile, and without much other incon- 
venience than an excess of dust and stiffened bones. 
The writer has seen many globe-trotters pass through 
India of whom few were not surprised at the relative 
comforts of travel here during the winter months, and 
no other time of the year should be chosen for trav- 
elling in India. 

It will be convenient to start upon our tour from 
Madura, the missionary home of the writer. It is a 
large, wide-awake centre of enthusiastic Hinduism in 
the extreme south of the peninsula. In the heart of 
this town, of more than a hundred thousand people, 
stands its great temple, dedicated to Siva. The 
principal monuments of South India are its temples. 
They are the largest temples in the world. The 
Madura temple is only the third in size ; but in its 
upkeep and architectural beauty it far surpasses the 
other two, which are larger. It covers an area of 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 33 

fifteen acres, and its many Goptiras, or towers, fur- 
nish the landmark of the country for miles around. 
It is erected almost entirely of granite blocks, some 
of which are sixty feet long. Its monolithic carving is 
exquisitely fine, as it is most abundant and elaborate. 
Hinduism may be moribund ; but this temple gives 
only intimation of life and prosperity as one gazes 
upon its elaborate ritual, and sees the thousands pass- 
ing daily into its shrine for worship. It represents 
the highest form of Hindu architecture, and, like 
almost all else that is Hindu, its history carries us to 
the dim distance of the past. But the great Tirumalai 
Nayak, the king of two and a half centuries ago, spent 
more in its elaboration than any one else. And it 
was he who built, half a mile away, the great palace 
which, though much reduced, still stands as the 
noblest edifice of its kind south of a line drawn from 
Bombay to Calcutta. 

In this same temple we find, transformed, another 
cult. It is called the Temple of Meenatchi, after its 
presiding goddess, "the Fish-eyed One." When 
Brahmanism reached Madura, many centuries ago, 
Meenatchi was the principal demoness worshipped by 
the people, who were all devil-worshippers. As was 
their wont, the Brahmans did not antagonize the old 



34 ■ INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

faith of the people, but absorbed it by marrying 
Meenatchi to their chief god Siva, and thus incorpo- 
rated the primitive devil-worship into the Brahmanical 
religion. Thus the Hinduism of Madura and of all 
South India is Brahmanism plus devil-worship. And 
the people are to-day much more absorbed in pacify- 
ing the devils which infest every village than they are 
in worshipping purely Hindu deities. 

The prevailing faith of the Dravidians, therefore, is 
demonolatry; and the myriad shrines in the villages 
and hamlets, and the daily rites conducted in them, 
attest the universal prevalence of this belief and the 
great place it has in the life of these so-called Hindus. 

A run of a hundred and fifty miles directly south 
brings us to Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of 
India. It is also the extreme south of Travancore, 
" the Land of Charity," and one of the richest and 
most charming sections of India. It is a Native State 
under the control of the Brahmans. 

It is unique in the large proportion of Christians 
which are among its inhabitants. Though the Chris- 
tian community in India averages only one per cent 
of the population, in the State of Travancore it 
amounts to 25 per cent. It is here that we 
find the ancient Syrian Church, with its three hun- 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 37 

dred and fifty thousand souls. Though it calls itself 
" the Thomasian, Apostolic Church," and though the 
Romish Church accepts the legend, modern historians 
deny its apostolic origin, and claim that it was 
founded no earlier than the third century. Even 
thus, it furnishes an intensely interesting study. The 
writer was deeply interested to see and enter its two 
churches at Kottayam, both of which are at least 
eight hundred years old. 

Four centuries ago, Roman Catholicism used all 
the resources of the Inquisition in order to absorb 
this Church. They succeeded only too well, and 
half of the Indian Syrian Church is now subject to 
Rome. Nearly a century ago, the Church Mission- 
ary Society of England lent a helping hand to the 
Syrian Church, and has brought new life and pro- 
gressive energy, and a new spiritual power and am- 
bition, into a portion of that decrepit type of ancient 
Christianity. 

Furthermore, a century of work given by the Lon- 
don Missionary Society and the Church Missionary 
Society has created a Protestant Christian commu- 
nity of more than one hundred thousand souls in 
that little kingdom alone. 

We pass from Travancore into the little State of 



38 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Cochin, on the north. We are impressed by the co- 
lossal Christian church in the town of Cochin, in 
which, however, only a small handful of English 
people worship every Sunday evening. It was 
erected by the Portuguese four centuries ago, and 
is a charming study. It is here, shortly after Vasco 
da Gama had completed the first round-the-Cape 
journey, that this house of God was erected by his 
followers. Two centuries later, the Dutch came, 
conquered the Portuguese, occupied their house of 
worship, and desecrated their tombs. In that church 
to-day one can find tombstones inscribed on one 
side by the Portuguese to their departed friends, 
and, on the other side, in Dutch, to commemorate 
departed Hollanders. 

But the most interesting sight, by far, in this 
quiet old Indian town, is the community of white 
Jews who live on its southern side. No one knows 
when they came here. They probably arrived at 
the Dispersion of the first century of our era; or it 
may be later. But the community must have been 
reenforced from time to time, as they have main- 
tained, in a marvellous way, the fairness of their 
complexion. It will not require much imagination, 
as one enters their synagogue, to think of the syna- 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 39 

gogue of Nazareth of old. As we ascend the stair- 
way into the Httle schoolroom above, and hear the 
little ones reciting, in pure Hebrew, passages from 
the Pentateuch, we can easily imagine that we are 
listening to the voice of a dear little Boy, nineteen 
centuries ago, reciting to His master those same 
passages in that same tongue in Palestine. There 
is hardly a place on earth where Judaism has met 
with fewer vicissitudes and changes than on this 
western coast of India. 

It is only a couple of hundred yards farther away 
that we find the synagogue of the black Jews — 
the descendants of those who were given by the 
ancient king to be slaves to the white Jews. They 
adopted the religion of their masters, and are still 
praying, like their masters, for the coming of the 
Messiah, of whose arrival and triumphs in India 
they seem to be oblivious. 

Leaving Cochin, we pass along the coast as far as 
Bombay, which has been called the " Eye of India," 
and also the " Gateway of India," two names which 
are equally appropriate to this beautiful city. There 
is hardly another city on earth where more races 
and religions blend. And its streets are made ex- 
ceedingly picturesque by the many costumes of its 



40 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

polyglot population. Before the arrival of the plague, 
some eight years ago, Bombay was perhaps the most 
populous city in India. But this fell scourge has 
decimated its population and has robbed it of much 
of its ambition. 

Perhaps the most interesting people that we see 
here are the Parsees, with their " Towers of Silence." 
According to their belief, earth is too sacred to be 
contaminated, and fire too divine to be polluted, by 
the bodies of their dead, which, therefore, they ex- 
pose in the towers, erected upon an adjacent hill, 
to be consumed by a crowd of hungry, expectant 
vultures. One usually sees forty or fifty of these 
filthy birds standing around the edge of each tower, 
watching the funeral cortege as it slowly winds its 
way up the hill, eager to pounce upon the body as 
soon as exposed by the bearers in the centre within. 
And from the time of exposure it takes hardly ten 
minutes before every particle of flesh has been con- 
sumed. 

The one hundred thousand Parsees of Bombay 
are almost the only representatives of the ancient 
faith of Zoroaster, perhaps the purest of all ethnic 
religions. They were driven out of their home land 
of Persia in the early onrush of Mohammedan fury, 



I 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 41 

and fled, twelve centuries ago, to India, where they 
found asylum. 

The Parsees have the distinction of being the 
most advanced people of India, alike in wealth and 
philanthropy, in their treatment of woman, and in 
education and general culture. Their influence 
throughout the land is far beyond their numbers. 
And yet they are so narrow in their conception of 
their faith, that they declined, the other day, to re- 
ceive into their fold the English bride of one of 
their number. Thus they decided that there is no 
door of entrance into their religion for any one who 
is not a born Parsee. 

It is in this city, also, that we find a large repre- 
sentation of another ancient cult — Jainism. 

Jainism is closely kin to Buddhism. It represents 
the same type of reaction from a debased Brahman- 
ism. As its name indicates, it is a cult for the wor- 
ship of " The Victorious Ones," that is, men who by 
self-discipline have triumphed over their passions 
and have attained perfection. Buddhism succumbed 
to, and was absorbed by, a new militant Brahman- 
ism, which we call Hinduism. Jainism, on the other 
hand, has maintained itself as a distinct faith and 
now has 1,334,148 followers. Like Buddhism, it is 



42 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

an agnostic religion, knowing no object of worship 
save the seventy-two Victorious Ones. 

One of the leading characteristics of Jainism is its 
love of life, even in its lowest manifestation. Their 
devotion to this article of their faith is carried to such 
an extent that the devout will sweep the road lest they 
step upon insects, and cover their mouth with gauze 
cloth lest they swallow and destroy minute forms of 
life. In the city of Bombay, Jains have a hospital for 
animals, for the maintenance of which they spend 
large sums of money annually. Maimed cattle, stray 
dogs and cats, and decrepit animals of all kinds are 
sought and brought here for asylum and care. It is 
even said, I cannot say with how much truth, that they 
employ men to come and spend nights here with a 
view to furnishing food for the many kinds of vermin 
which infest the place. 

In a sumptuous through train we now pass rapidly 
over nearly one thousand miles of a country which is 
intensely interesting, historically and ethnologically, 
and finally arrive in the famous city of Agra, which 
stands supreme among Indian cities as a centre of 
architectural beauty. We have here come into a 
distinctively Mohammedan region; and the edifices 
which crown the city with glory are not only con- 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 45 

nected with the Mohammedan faith, they are also the 
masterpieces of the greatest minds of the Mogul Em- 
pire, and culminate in the Taj Mahal, which is the 
most valued gem of Mohammedan architecture, and, 
perhaps, the most beautiful edifice in the world. We 
first turn our face toward the Fort, which is one of 
the magnificent fortresses of India. Two and a half 
centuries ago. Shah Jehan was the ruling Mogul. He 
was not only one of the greatest rulers of the dynasty; 
he had also a passion for building, and was a man of 
rare taste as an architect. The Agra Fort, whose 
stern walls of red sandstone extend about a mile and 
a half, represents to us, at present, not strength and 
protection, but an enclosure within which the emperor 
built his great palace, which is a marvel of beauty and 
of superb architectural workmanship. The most at- 
tractive of the many parts of this palace is the Pearl 
Mosque, which " owes its charm to its perfect propor- 
tions, its harmony of designs, and its beauty of ma- 
terial, rather than to richness of decoration and orna- 
ment. In design it is similar to most temples of this 
kind ; a court-yard with a fountain in the middle, sur- 
rounded on three sides by arcaded cloisters ; while on 
the entrance side and that facing it are exquisitely 
chaste marble screens." " Into the fair body of the 



46 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

India marble the Moguls could work designs and 
arabesques borrowed from the Persia of ancient his- 
tory, and flowers of exquisite hue and symmetry sug- 
gested by the more advanced and civilized Florentine 
artists, who were tempted over by the well-filled coffers 
of Shah Jehan." As the Pearl Mosque was a part of 
the palace, it was only used by the royal court. Days 
of pleasure and improvement could be spent in the 
study of the various parts which have been preserved 
of this ancient palace. But we pass on a few miles to 
the Taj Mahal, which, like most of the best buildings 
of Mohammedan art in North India, is a mausoleum 
and was erected by Shah Jehan to his favourite wife, 
Mumtaz-i-Mahal. The Taj is erected in a beautiful 
garden, the gateway into which is perhaps the finest 
in India and is " a worthy pendant to the Taj itself." 
The garden is exquisitely laid out, with a view to set- 
ting off the unspeakable charms of that " dream of 
loveliness embodied in white marble." The Taj has 
well been described as a work " conceived by Titans 
and finished by jewellers." The grandeur of the con- 
ception and the wonderful delicacy of the workman- 
ship cannot fail to impress even the most unlearned in 
the architectural art. Much has been written, and all 
in unstinted praise, of this incomparable edifice ; and 



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THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 49 

yet, like the writer, every visitor comes to its presence, 
feels the growing thrill of its beauty, and exclaims, 
" The half was never told ! " And few leave the place 
without returning to be enthralled once more by a 
moonlight view of this thing of beauty. How great, in- 
deed, must have been the love of that otherwise cruel 
monarch for his departed empress that he should have 
exhausted so much of wealth (some say that the Taj 
cost thirty million rupees) and conceived so much of 
beauty wherewith to embalm her memory. And as 
we enter the mausoleum and stand in the presence of 
the lovely shrines which it encases, — that of Mumtaz- 
i-Mahal, and that of the emperor himself, — the mind is 
awed and may find expression in Sir Edwin Arnold's 

poetic fancy, — 

" Here in the heart of all, 
With chapels girdled, shut apart by screens, 
The shrine's self stands, white, delicately white, 
White as the cheek of Mumtaz-i-Mahal, 
When Shah Jehan let fall a king's tear there. 
White as the breast her new babe vainly pressed 
That ill day in the camp at Burhanpur, 
The fair shrine stands, guarding two cenotaphs." 

And upon a panel of his own shrine the mourning 
emperor had inscribed these significant words from 
ancient traditions : " Saith Jesus, on whom peace be, 



50 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

this world is a bridge. Pass thou over it, but build 
not upon. This world is one hour; give its minutes 
to thy prayers, for the rest is unseen." 

We cannot but feel that the Taj is the highest ex- 
pression of art that human affection and domestic 
affliction have ever achieved. This is not religion; 
but it is closely kin to it. • 

Not far from the Fort is found another great 
mosque, or musj'id^ where the Mohammedans crowd 
for worship. This, also, is a wonderful specimen of 
art, and in its combination of simplicity and beauty 
is well calculated to rouse to enthusiasm the many 
worshippers of Allah. 

About six miles away from Agra is another speci- 
men of architectural genius. It is the tomb of Akbar 
the Great. Some believe it to be almost equal to the 
Taj. It commemorates with great beauty the noble 
name of that most distinguished man of the whole 
Mogul dynasty, — a man who was famed for his 
breadth of view and sympathy, his wise statesmanship, 
and religious tolerance. He did more than any other 
to create sympathy between Hindus and Mohamme- 
dans. It was in this mausoleum that the famous 
Kohinor diamond found its place and was exhibited 
for years. It is a striking fact that this precious stone 



ii 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 53 

was undisturbed there, in the open air, for over sev- 
enty years, until the Shah of Persia, in 1739, in- 
vaded India and sacked the palace of the Moguls, 
and, with other fabulous wealth, carried this diamond 
also back to his own country. 

Delhi is only a few hours' ride to the north from 
Agra. It is perhaps the most interesting city in all 
India. From the earliest times of Brahmanic legends 
down to the present, it has been the centre of war and 
conflict, of royal display, extravagance, and treachery. 
Here, again, Mohammedanism has, from the first, ex- 
ercised its power and revealed its religious warmth and 
enthusiasm. The Mohammedan mosques are equal to 
any in the land. And though the Persian sacked the 
city a hundred and seventy years ago, and robbed it of 
most that was beautiful and valuable, there still remains 
a part of what was probably the loveliest palace that was 
ever erected. It reveals to us also " the imperial gran- 
deur of the Moguls, whose style of living was probably 
more splendid than that of any monarchs of any nation 
before or since that time. Their extravagance was un- 
bounded. Their love of display has never been sur- 
passed." It is claimed that the Peacock Throne of 
this Delhi Palace was of sufficient value to pay the 
debts of a nation. The marble walls are richly adorned 



54 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

with exquisite mosaics. Indeed, they are regarded as 

incomparable specimens of the art. One can pardon 

the builder who engraved over the north and south 

entrances to this palace of the Moguls the following 

lines : — 

" If there be a Paradise on Earth, 

It is This! It is This! It is This!" 

Eleven miles from the city are found splendid ruins 
which are crowned by the celebrated tower known as 
Kutab-minar, which is another of the most ancient and 
interesting monuments of India. Originally, this re- 
markable structure was a Hindu temple, and was 
erected probably in the fourth century of our era. 
But upon the invasion of the Mussulmans the temple 
was converted into a Mohammedan mosque, and the 
famous tower, which is 238 feet high, and is one of the 
most beautifully erected in the world, was allowed to 
stand. " The sculptures that cover its surface have 
been compared to those upon the column of Trajan in 
Rome and the Column Vendome in Paris ; but they 
are intended to relate the military triumphs of the men 
in whose honour they were erected, while the inscrip- 
tion on the Kutab-minar is a continuous recognition 
of the power and glory of God and of the virtues of 
Mohammed, his Prophet." 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 57 

It is in this city that one is impressed most thor- 
oughly with memorials of the great Mutiny of half a 
century ago, where the British were so hard pushed 
and suffered so terribly in those days of bitterness 
which tried men's souls. And there is no memorial 
of this bitter struggle, to which the British refer with 
so much of pride and glory, as they do to the Cash- 
mere gate, which they blew up and thereby forced an 
entrance into the city, with a loss of much precious 
blood. 

But it was not the Mutiny nor the massive and gor- 
geous emblems of Mohammedanism which impressed 
the writer most in this city. It was a vision just out- 
side the walls of the city — a vision of great simplicity 
— which thrilled his heart a few years ago. It was a 
very unattractive little ruined tower, from the centre 
of which rose a polished granite pillar, some thirty or 
forty feet high. It was inscribed from top to bottom, 
and the inscription was quite legible. It spoke not of 
the triumphs of war nor of the glory of human rule 
and conquest. It is one of the most eloquent testimo- 
nies to the nobility of the Buddhist faith. It was car- 
ried here only a few centuries ago by an enlightened 
Mohammedan monarch from the far-off plains of the 
north. It is one of the celebrated "Asoka Pillars." 



58 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Asoka was the emperor of twenty-two centuries ago 
who wrought for Buddhism what Constantine the Great, 
at a later day, wrought for Christianity. He was con- 
verted to Buddhism and at once became the devout 
propagator of that faith. As the great emperor of 
his time, he exalted Buddhism and made it the State 
religion of India. He not only sent his missionaries 
all over the land ; he decreed that its principal teach- 
ings should be everywhere inscribed upon rocks and 
upon pillars ; and that these pillars should be erected 
in public places for the instruction of the people. This 
pillar in Delhi is one of about a dozen already dis- 
covered and preserved in North India. And it is, 
perhaps, the most fully inscribed of all that have been 
found. And of the fourteen Asokan edicts inscribed, 
most of them inculcate a high morality, and some of 
them a noble altruism. For instance, the first is a pro- 
hibition of the slaughter of animals for food or sacri- 
fice. The second is the provision for medical aid for 
men and animals, and for plantations and wells on the 
roadside. The third is a command to observe every 
fifth year as a year of mutual confession of sins, of 
peace-making, and of humiliation. The ninth is the 
inculcation of true happiness as found in virtue. In 
all these inscribed edicts of that most tolerant and cos- 




KUTAB-MINAR, DELHI 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 6i 

mopolitan Buddhist emperor, we see nothing of which 
Buddhism should be ashamed, and much of which it 
may be proud, in the way of ethical injunction. It is 
more than ten centuries since Buddhism, which had 
been the common faith of India for a thousand years, 
was absorbed into a new militant Hinduism and ceased 
to exist as a separate faith in this land. To-day, India 
proper has hardly half a million Buddhists. And yet 
we behold these mute prophets of far-off days scattered 
in many parts of the land, still pressing their message, 
but vainly, indeed, upon a people of unknown tongues. 
Buddha himself is now a part of the Hindu Pantheon; 
and his principal teachings have become an essential 
part of the faith which he tried to overthrow. But 
these pillars stand for Buddhism that was tolerant 
toward all save, perhaps, the Brahmanism which it 
existed to overthrow. 

From Delhi we pass on northward to the beautiful 
city of Amritsar, which is comparatively a modern 
town of one hundred and fifty thousand people. In 
the heart of this town stands the far-famed Golden 
Temple of the Sikhs, built by Ranjit Singh, — "The 
Lion of the Panjaub." The temple is not a large one, 
being only fifty-three feet square, and is built in the 
centre of a water tank, called " The Pool of Immor- 



62 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

tality." The peculiar external feature of the temple 
is that it is largely covered with gold plate ; hence 
its name. It is a beautiful object to behold ; and 
we are in haste to take off our shoes, which are pro- 
hibited in the sacred precincts, and to put on the 
shapeless holy slippers presented to us ! We enjoy 
perfect freedom in passing through all parts of the 
temple, while devotees, under the guidance of the 
priests, sing their songs of praise with devout im- 
partiality to their god and to their bible. 

The temple is the centre and inspiration of the 
Sikh religion. The Sikhs are an interesting people. 
They rallied round one of the multitude of the Hindu 
religious reformers, named Nanak Shah, who estab- 
lished this cult about the end of the fifteenth century. 
It may be called an amalgam of Mohammedanism 
and Hinduism. It unites the monotheism and the 
stern morality of the former with much of the petty 
ritual of the latter. It does not observe caste. Still, 
in outer matters of observances, Sikhs are not easily 
distinguishable from ordinary Hindus. They, also, 
have bound themselves into a military order, which 
gives them almost the distinction of a nation. For 
this reason they are among the very best material 
which the country furnishes for the native army, and 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 65 

are worthy to stand shoulder to shoulder with Euro- 
pean soldiers. / 

This religion is peculiarly a book religion. It has 
degenerated into a species of bibliolatry. Their bible 
contains the teachings and sermons of the founder of 
the faith ; and it presents the highest standard of 
moraHty and courage, and appeals with special power 
to this sturdy tribe of the north. This book is called 
" Granth," and is generally spoken of as " Granth Sa- 
hib," which we may translate as " Mr. Book " ! That 
is, they give it a dignity and a personality which is 
unique in any faith ; and the Golden Temple is largely 
used as the receptacle of the " Granth," of which they 
keep a few copies protected by covers, which, however, 
they remove in order to show them to us as we pass by. 

In several particulars this faith is unique. They 
have no idols or altars, but meet once a week for 
prayer and praise. Their preacher reads passages 
from the " Granth " and prays to their god, who may 
be reached through the intercession of Nanak Shah, 
his prophet and their redeemer. They sing hymns 
similar to those used in Protestant worship, and cele- 
brate communion by partaking of wafers of unleav- 
ened bread. Their congregation do not object to the 
presence of strangers, but usually invite them to 



66 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

participate in the worship. There are about two 
and a quarter million Sikhs in the Province of the 
Panjaub, — the land of the "five rivers." 

While in this city, one is tempted to look at the 
Khalsa College, one of the institutions established by 
government in different parts of the land for the suit- 
able training of native princes. Here one may find 
young Sikh nobles and wealthy landlords, to the 
number of five hundred, being qualified for the high 
responsibilities which are before them. 

We hurry back from the north in a southeastern 
direction over a distance of eight hundred miles 
and reach the city of Benares, on the river Ganges. 
There is hardly a river in the world which produces 
more fertility and which brings sustenance to more 
people than the divine Ganges. The river is not only 
deified, but is regarded as one of the most potent 
deities of India. 

From time immemorial, Benares, or " Kasi," which 
is built upon the banks of the Ganges, has partaken 
of the sanctity of the river, and is regarded by devout 
Hindus as the most sacred spot in the world. To die 
within the radius of ten miles from its centre is sure 
and eternal bliss, even to the outcast and the defiling 
white man ! Many thousands are brought annually 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 67 

from all parts of the land to die at this sacred place, 
and have their ashes scattered upon the waters of the 
holy river. Many thousands of others who die in all 
parts of the land have their bodies burned and their 
ashes brought, by loving relatives upon pilgrimage, 
to this city to be sprinkled upon the tides of the 
Ganges, which insures eternal rest to the departed 
souls. 

What Mecca is to Mohammedans, more than Jeru- 
salem is to Jews, is Benares to devout Hindus. It has 
more temples and shrines than any other equal area in 
the world. Its priests, who are called Gangaputhira 
("the Sons of the Ganges"), are legion. They have 
their emissaries at principal railway stations for hun- 
dreds of miles from the city, always on the lookout for 
pilgrims, and gathering up pilgrim bands to lead them 
on with ever increasing numbers to their temples. 
The idols of this city are legion. 

But there is nothing here which impresses one more 
than its squalid filth, and the abject degradation of the 
people which crowd its streets. The temples are ex- 
tremely dirty. There is not one of imposing size or 
of decent attractiveness. There stands the monkey- 
temple, where scores of mangy, tricky brutes are daily 
sumptuously fed by devout pilgrims. On one side of 



68 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

the precinct a clever butcher-priest severs with one 
stroke the heads of goats which are brought for 
sacrifice to the thirsty deity. As in Madura, so in 
Benares, the great god of the Hindu is Siva. But 
the character of the worship which is rendered to him 
and to others of his cult is far from ennobling when 
not actually revolting. And the phallic emblem of 
this god is everywhere found in his temples and is 
suggestive of definite evils connected with his worship. 
The saddest and most grewsome of all objects 
which impress one in this centre of Hinduism is its 
burning Ghaut. To the side of the river many 
bodies are brought daily, each wrapped in a white 
cloth, and are deposited just where they are half 
covered by the water. Within ten feet of this place 
we see parties of pilgrims bathing in and drinking 
of the sacred water of the river, utterly regardless 
of the proximity of corpses above stream ! From 
time to time corpses are picked out of the water 
and placed upon piles of wood near by. Each pile 
is ignited and the body reduced to ashes. These 
ashes are carefully collected, later on, and sprinkled, 
with appropriate ceremonies, on the face of the 
river. Day after day, and year after year, this cease- 
less procession of the dead takes place, while up 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 69 

stream and down stream the bank of the river is 
covered with men and women who fatally believe 
that by bathing in this dirty stream they are wash- 
ing away their sins and preparing themselves for 
final absorption and eternal rest in Brahm ! 

Benares reminded the writer of Rome. He never 
realized the degradation possible to Christianity 
until he visited " The Eternal City," with its huge 
shams and ghastly superstitions. He never saw 
Hinduism with its myriad inane rites and debasing 
idolatry half so grotesque, idiotic, and repulsive, as 
in this city of Benares, where one ought to see the 
religion of these two hundred odd million people 
at its best, and not at its worst. 

It is a positive relief to go out of the city, a dis- 
tance of four miles, to Sarnath, where the great 
Buddha — " The Enlightened One " — spent many 
long years in establishing his faith and in inculcat- 
ing his " Doctrine of the Wheel." It is a beautiful 
drive to the birthplace of one of the greatest world 
faiths. Very little but ruins meets the inquiring 
gaze of the visitor. Some of these, however, are 
very impressive, especially the great stupa, or tower. 
It now stands a hundred and ten feet high and 
ninety-three feet in diameter. It was very substan- 



70 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

tklly built, the lower part faced by immense blocks 
of stones which were clamped together with iron. 
And this facing was covered with elaborate inscrip- 
tions. The upper part was built of brick. At 
the foot of this striking ruin, built in the remote 
past as a monument to an ancient faith, devout Bud- 
dhists from all parts of the world come for worship 
and meditation upon the vanity of life. The day 
before the writer arrived, the Lama of Tibet spent 
here a few hours worshipping and seeking the bless- 
ing of the " Enlightened One," Near by, govern- 
ment is making a series of excavations and is dis- 
covering very interesting relics connected with this 
ancient monastery founded by the Buddha. Already 
a beautiful specimen of an Asoka pillar and a variety 
of interesting sculptures have rewarded their in- 
dustry. One can imagine no place more dear to 
the contemplative Buddhist than this centre of the 
activities of his great Master, where he spent many 
of the best years of his life in expounding the teach- 
ings of his new cult, and in leading many souls 
toward the light for which he had struggled with 
so much of heroic self-denial, and which had ulti- 
mately dawned upon him under the sacred Boh tree 
at Buddha Gaya. 



THE HOME OF MANY FAITHS 71 

In this extended pilgrimage, during which we have 
sought ancient and modern expressions of the many 
faiths which have dominated, or which now domi- 
nate, the people of this land, we have come into 
touch not only with those tolerant faiths which have 
found their origin here, or which have found refuge 
and popularity in this peninsula, — such as Hindu- 
ism, Demonolatry, Buddhism, Jainism, Zorastrianism, 
and Sikhism. We have also come into touch with 
the three most intolerant faiths of the world, — Chris- 
tianity, Mohammedanism, and Judaism. There is 
no land where these three relisfions have suf- 
fered less of opposition than in India. Indeed, it 
is not from persecution and opposition that they 
have stood in most danger, but from fraternal con- 
tact, growing appreciation, and ultimate absorption. 
The Hindu mind, like the Hindu faith, has a fatal 
facility for accepting, semi-assimilating, and finally 
absorbing, all of religious belief and conviction that 
may come into contact with it. And this never 
necessarily involves the abandoning of the old beliefs. 



CHAPTER III 

BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 

In order to appreciate the wide extent of the 
British Empire in the East, one needs to travel 
over the main lines of India and then steam a 
thousand miles across the Bay of Bengal to Burma. 
Landing at Rangoon, which is the doorway of the 
land, he reembarks upon one of the sumptuous Irra- 
wady River boats and steams northward another 
thousand miles into the very heart of the country. 
Thus without leaving the eastern empire one can 
spend weeks of most interesting travel, and pass 
through territories inhabited by peoples of separate 
racial types and of totally different tongues. Per- 
haps no other region of the world can furnish such 
a variety of climes and such marked contrasts of 
national habits and costumes. And yet, all this 
vast territory has been brought into subjection to 
the British crown and furnishes facilities and con- 
veniences of travel which are really marvellous in 
the East. Burma is politically and industrially a 

part of India. 

72 



BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 73 

It is a rich country, with four magnificent rivers 
reaching nearly its whole length, furnishing abun- 
dant facilities for cheap travel and commerce, and 
carrying fertility into all sections of the land. 

It is the land of rice, of teak, and of oil. These 
are the triple sources of Burmese industry, com- 
merce, and wealth. Never was a land richer than 
this in alluvial soil, in refreshing rains, and in boun- 
tiful rivers. It is one great expanse of living, 
paddy green. The teak timber furnished by the 
mighty forests of this land is carried to many 
lands. The extent of this trade may be imagined 
from the statement that the Bombay- Burma Trading 
Company in Burma employs three thousand elephants 
for hauling its timber to the river. Every two 
elephants are under the care of three men ; so that 
there are forty-five hundred men in charge of these 
animals alone. 

Burma is called the " Land of Pagodas." The 
first object which attracts the eye soon after the 
ship enters the river, and while still twenty miles 
from the harbour, is the far-famed pagoda of Schwey 
Dagon, in Rangoon. Buddhism is preeminently 
the faith of Burma. All the people have been for 
many centuries its adherents. And the pagoda is 



74 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

the outward emblem of that faith. What the church 
is to Christianity, and the temple is to Hinduism, 
the pagoda (sometimes called "dagoba") is to Bud- 
dhism. It is the farthest removed from the Chris- 
tian conception of a place of worship. In Christianity, 
large edifices are erected where the multitude can 
meet to unite in public worship. In Hinduism, a 
temple is largely the abode of the idol, which is the 
outward emblem of their god. In it there is no 
place for public worship or for an assembled audi- 
ence. In Buddhism, there is not even a god to 
worship, so that there is no interior to the pagoda. 
It is Hke the pyramid of Egypt, one massive solid 
structure, but of an elongated bell shape. The high- 
est part of it, corresponding to the handle of the 
bell, is 'called " hti," and is usually covered with 
precious metal. It is a reliquary rather than a 
place of worship; and every pagoda of note is sup- 
posed to be the receptacle of a few hairs or bones 
of the Buddha ! Indeed, if one believe the members 
of that faith, the anatomy of that great man was 
marvellous and is still very promiscuously distributed 
through various lands of the East! 

The Schwey Dagon pagoda is a very prominent 
object ; for it is not only three hundred and seventy 



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BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 77 

feet high, but is also built on an artificial mound 
which is a hundred and seventy feet in height. 
It is elaborately decorated, and its " hti " is mostly 
of solid gold, encrusted with precious stones pre- 
sented to the pagoda by King Mindoon Min. But 
while the pagoda itself impresses one with its mas- 
sive proportions, it is the exquisite group of num- 
berless little shrines or temples which surround the 
pagoda, every one of which holds one or more large 
images of the great Buddha, that furnish the rich 
sense of beauty and charm which prevail. These 
little shrines are either built of marble or of richly 
carved teak, or of glass mosaic; and every one tries 
to excel every other in its delicate charm. And 
upon nearly every one of these shrines there are 
sweet little bells, which, as the wind blows, seem to 
respond to spirit hands and ring forth their gentle 
peals of sacred music to the great founder of the faith. 

Here, also, is a massive bell of forty tons, — the 
third in size in the world. It was once carried away 
by the British and lost in the Rangoon River. 
But the people later received permission to search 
for it. They found it, and with genuine pride and 
triumph raised it and restored it to their pagoda. 

It is one of the peculiar ironies of history that 



78 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

in this land of the Buddha, who was the greatest 
iconoclast, and who not only abhorred idolatry but 
also ignored deity, there should exist to-day num- 
berless images of him in every town and hamlet. 
These are of all sizes, from the immense reclining 
Buddha of Pegu, which is a hundred and eighty- 
two feet long, and is built of brick and mortar, down 
to the tiniest figures carried on the persons of indi- 
viduals. There is no pagoda or shrine in Burma 
around w^hich is not found a large number of these 
images. They have not the hideous deformity of 
Hindu idolatry ; but present either the benign and 
complacent, or the calm and contemplative, expres- 
sion which cannot fail to impress itself upon the 
national character of the people. And one may 
say, with confidence, that in this matter the truth 
of the proverb is verified, — " Like god, like people." 
One may leave Rangoon in a comfortable train, 
and in about eighteen hours reach the old capital 
of Upper Burma, the beautiful Mandalay, which is 
nearly four hundred miles distant. The same jour- 
ney may be taken by the river Irrawady if one 
has more leisure and means ; and he may thus 
enjoy one of the most beautiful and sumptuous river 
journeys in the world. 



BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 79 

It was only twenty years ago that this part of 
the country was seized by the British without blood- 
shed, and the foolish and dissolute King Theebaw 
was made prisoner for his stupid insolence, and 
deported, with his two wives, to India, where they 
are still spending their days in retirement. Upper 
Burma has, however, put on new beauty and pros- 
perity since the British have taken it over ; and 
the people are abundantly satisfied with the new 
regime. Mandalay has also its famed Arrakan 
pagoda, which claims to have the only contem- 
porary likeness of Buddha on earth. It is an im- 
mense brazen image; and it is the occupation of 
the devout to gild the same with gold-leaf. At 
least a dozen men and women can be seen thus 
constantly expressing their devotion. In a few 
years there will be tons of gold thus pasted upon 
his sacred body ! But alas for the vandalism which 
lights up its shrine and the calm face of Buddha by 
electricity ! 

Another famous pagoda of Mandalay is the so- 
called " Four Hundred and Fifty Pagodas of the 
Law." This is a kind of Buddhist bible in stone. 
It has four hundred and fifty small shrines, every 
one of which has a large polished granite slab, upon 



8o INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

which is engraved a precept of the faith ; and the 
whole make up a complete body of the law, which 
every member of the faith may come and read at 
his leisure. 

Here, as at all shrines, we notice the beautiful 
custom of these Burmese people in practising their 
public devotion with bouquets of flowers in their 
hands. It is touching to see this constant blending 
of beauty with piety. The abundant use of the 
candle, also, in their worship reminds us of the 
Romish ritual. 

We are taken through the royal gardens and the 
deserted palaces of Mandalay, which are constructed 
largely, as many of the houses of Burma are, of ex- 
quisitely carved teak, rising here and there in pointed 
spires, which are indeed beautiful, but which give 
the impression of the so-called gingerbread style of 
architecture. 

Upon one who has lived for many years in India 
there are two things in Burma which make a deep 
and a very pleasing impression. 

In the first place, the charm of the Burmese 
woman is marked. She has none of the cringing, 
retiring, self-conscious mien of the Hindu women. 
She is possessed of liberty and of equality with man. 



J 



BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 83 

Her appearance in society is both modest and self- 
respecting. She is conscious of her own beauty, 
and knows how to enhance it with exquisite taste. 
She is a great lover of colours, as is the Hindu 
woman. But the latter loves only the primitive and 
elementary colours ; the former, on the other hand, 
cultivates the delicate shades, and adorns herself 
with silks of various tints, such as attract and fasci- 
nate. It is for this reason that Burma is called 
" The Silken East." Her dress is clumsy and un- 
couth in form, and, in this respect, is incomparably 
inferior to the graceful cloth of India. But the 
woman herself is lovely, and the taste which she dis- 
plays in her personal adornment is very attractive. 
It does not surprise one to know that not a few 
Europeans marry these Burmese ladies of beauty. 
But above her beauty is that pose of freedom and 
self-respect which commends her everywhere. Nor 
is this assumed. The woman of Burma is " the 
man of the family." In business, and in all forms of 
trade, she is far superior to her lord, and much of 
the support and the honour of the family depends 
upon her industry, cleverness, and independence. 
Certainly Buddhism has produced, in many respects, 
a higher type of womanhood than has Hinduism. 



84 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Another aspect of life in Burma is one that in- 
stantly captivates one who goes there from India. 
It is a land free from the trammels of caste. The 
trail of this serpent is upon all things in India. It 
divides men at all points, and robs social life of 
much that is sweet and beautiful in other lands. 
The great Gautama vehemently attacked the Brah- 
manical caste system, and one is glad to see in 
Burma that that faith has adhered to this primitive 
enmity. One rejoices to see at the temples and on 
the public streets, everywhere, common eating and 
drinking houses, where the people meet for refresh- 
ment and for quiet social chat, without any thought 
of caste to disturb their relationship and mar their 
convivial pleasures. 

That which impresses the observant Christian 
visitor to that land is the triumph and wonderful 
achievement of missionary effort there during the 
last half century. 

All know the works, the sufferings, and the results 
attained by that great prophet of Burma, Adoniram 
Judson. He was a saint of the heroic mould, and 
his influence will affect the history of that people 
for centuries to come. 

The American Baptist Mission overshadows, by 



I 



BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 85 

its numbers and success, all other bodies of mission- 
aries in the land. And at the present time their 
splendid force of workers is making a deep impress 
upon the community. 

But their success has been mostly achieved among 
a very peculiar hill-tribe of that country, — the Karens. 
It was long after the Baptists had begun work there 
that this low hill-tribe, of less than two million 
people, was in the lowest depths of barbarism. 
Their language was not reduced to writing, and 
consequently, they had no literature whatever. But 
they had one interesting tradition. It had come 
down to them, generation after generation, that their 
bible had been lost, and that some day the Great 
Spirit would send a fair brother from the West to 
restore unto them the message of God which had 
disappeared. The " Fair Brother " came in the 
person of the American missionary; and his mes- 
sage was received in the assured faith that it was 
divinely sent and was the long-lost tradition of their 
tribe. From that day forward, thousands of the 
Karen tribe have everywhere accepted the Gospel of 
the Christ, until there are, at the present time, con- 
nected with that mission alone, more than one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand Karen converts. 



86 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

And this is by no means all of the wonderful 
story of the regeneration of this barbarous tribe. 
Either by a very wise missionary statesmanship, or 
by a rare inspiration, such as we do not see else- 
where in the East, these people have almost entirely 
assumed the financial burdens of their own religious 
training and institutions, and are always quick, even 
beyond their means, to respond to every Gospel 
claim upon their purse. The story of their offer- 
ings, in view of their extreme poverty, is marvellous 
in its self-denial and outgoing generosity. The 
writer spent a few days at the missionary centre in 
the outskirts of Rangoon. Upon that compound 
there was a memorial church that had cost $30,- 
000, of which the Karen Christians had given 
all, save a grant made by government for a few 
adjoining class-rooms. Three bungalows and other 
buildings of value are also found there, and the 
whole property is owned, not by the mission, but 
by the Karens themselves. Ten miles away from 
this is the largest theological seminary in the East, 
with more than one hundred and forty students 
under training. For the maintenance of this, again, 
those poor Karen Christians gladly impose upon 
themselves a family tax, and have the sweet con- 



BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 87 

sciousness that their youth are being trained for 
Christian service through their own self-denying 
endeavour. 

These people were in social scale so low that they 
had practically no music of their own. They have 
therefore readily taken to western music. And it is 
astonishing to hear how well they sing our western 
tunes, and even render solos and quartettes at public 
European functions in a way that calls forth hearty 
encores. It is verily the birth of a nation in a day. 
So that in this land of many wonders the movement 
among the Karen people seems to be the most won- 
derful of all. 

Among the Karens, Ko San Ye stands forth as a 
unique figure of intense interest. He has been called 
the " Moody " of Burma. He, is absolutely illiterate. 
When about thirty years old, he lost his wife and his 
only child ; and finding no comfort in his ancestral 
demonolatry, he turned to Buddhism for relief and 
retired to a mountain retreat and became known and 
esteemed among his people as a devout ascetic and a 
holy man. With the offerings of his people he built 
two pagodas and a monastery. But his soul found no 
rest there. In 1890, he was baptized as a Christian, 
with one hundred and forty of his followers. He then 



88 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

obtained a grant of twenty thousand acres of waste 
land from government, and established a village which 
now numbers several hundred houses. His influence 
over his own people is amazing, and is the result of 
superstitious reverence and awe. 

He regretted that his ignorance prevented him from 
preaching the Gospel ; but he thought that his influ- 
ence over the people should be rightly used in the 
Lord's service. So he devoted himself to the collec- 
tion of funds for religious purposes among his people. 
And in this work he has had almost fatal success, for 
his fellow-Christian Karens have responded to his 
appeals for money to the extent of at least $130,000. 
In view of the exceeding poverty of the people, this 
sum seems almost fabulous. Mr. Ko San Ye is known 
by all to be perfectly disinterested in the use of the 
money intrusted to him. Not a cent sticks to his 
hands ; and he reverently and truthfully speaks of it 
as the " Lord's money." But his judgment is not 
commensurate with his piety. Even the most friendly 
cannot say that he has wisely administered this sacred 
trust of his poor brethren. He has erected churches, 
schools, and rest-houses which are altogether too 
sumptuous for the people. He spent thousands in 
the purchase of a fine steam-launch for the convenience 



BURMA, THE BEAUTIFUL 89 

of his people on the river side. He then purchased a 
rice-mill which brings a fair income to the mission. 
He has added to these two fine and expensive auto- 
mobiles, in the smaller of which the writer had, for 
him, the unique pleasure of a delightful spin through 
the city of Rangoon and its suburbs, under the guid- 
ance of a Karen chauffeur ! It was his first automobile 
ride ; and to think of it as being enjoyed in a vehicle 
bought by poor Christians of Burma ! Strange to say, 
the people continue to repose implicit confidence in 
him, even to the extent of mortgaging their property, 
in order to add to this public fund. It is to be hoped 
that this good man may soon submit more to mission- 
ary guidance. 

Ko San Ye is but an interesting episode in the 
wonderful progress of a nation from the depth of bar- 
barism to Christian privilege and civilized life. The 
missionaries often dare not have him present during 
the baptism of new converts, lest they should think 
that they were baptized in the name of Ko San Ye 
rather than in the name of Christ ! And yet it is said 
that the two leading characteristics of this strange 
man are his humility and his unselfishness ! 

The Karens, with all their lowliness and barbarous 
antecedents, are excellent material to work upon, and 



go INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

are responding with wonderful eagerness to the mis- 
sionary endeavour made in their behalf, and are already, 
in many noble qualities, revealing to the native Chris- 
tians of the East the way of ascent to nobility of char- 
acter and to the highest Christian possession. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 

The word " caste " is derived from the Latin term 
castus, which signified purity of breed. It was the 
term used by Vasco da Gama and his fellow-Portu- 
guese adventurers, four centuries ago, as they landed 
upon the southwestern coast of India and began to 
study the social and religious condition of the peo- 
ple. The word expressed to them the remarkable 
bond which held the people together; the subse- 
quent generations of foreigners and English-speaking 
natives have adopted it as the most appropriate term 
to express the unique system which prevails all over 
India. No other people, in the history of the world, 
have erected a social structure comparable to this 
of India. For twenty-five centuries it has controlled 
the life of nearly one-sixth of the human race. Other 
countries have, or have had, tribal connections, class 
distinctions, trade unions, religious sects, philan- 
thropic fraternities, social guilds, and various other 

organizations. But India is the only land where all 

91 



92 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

these are practically welded together into one con- 
sistent and mighty whole, which dictates the every 
detail of human relationship and controls the whole 
destiny of man for time and eternity. For it should 
be remembered that India has consistently declined 
to recognize any distinction between the social and 
the relio:ious. These are the reverse and the ob- 
verse of life ; they are brought to the same rules and 
must yield obedience to the same authority. Reli- 
gion, to the Hindu, permeates the whole social 
domain; and social order draws its sanctions from, 
and is enforced by the penalties of, religion. To 
marry outside one's caste, to eat food cooked by an 
outcast, to cross the ocean, to delay unduly the 
marriage of a daughter, — these, and a thousand 
other delinquencies which may seem absolutely 
harmless to a Westerner, are not only regarded as 
social irregularities, but also as sins whose penalties 
will harass the soul beyond the grave or burning- 
ground. Herein does caste reveal its uniqueness, 
and from this does it pass on to the exercise of its 
extraordinary tyranny over the people. 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 93 

I 

The origin of caste is a subject of much uncer- 
tainty and debate. In ancient Vedic times, caste 
was unknown. Society, in those days, was more 
elastic and free, and resembled that of other lands. 
And yet it showed a tendency toward a mechanical 
division which later grew into the caste system. It 
was not until the time of the great lawgiver, Manu, 
about twenty-five centuries ago, that the system 
crystallized into laws, and the organization became 
so compact as to force itself upon all the people and 
become an integral part of recognized Hindu law. 
Manu and other lawgivers found the basis of caste 
rules in the traditions of an ancient Brahman tribe. 
These they elaborated and enforced. 

The ancient name for caste was varna, which 
means " colour." This name is suggestive, and has 
led many authorities to trace back the whole system 
to original race-purity, as indicated by the colour of 
the skin. The first incursion of the fair Aryans 
from the northwest settled down, it is claimed, in 
the northern portions of the country. They gradu- 
ally mingled and intermarried with the dark-skinned 
Dravidian and aboriginal population, with the natural 



94 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

consequence of a loss of race-purity and of whiteness 
of complexion. A subsequent descent of a new 
Aryan host upon the plains of northern India found 
the descendants of their predecessors of darker 
hue than themselves, which bespoke their race de- 
generacy; so they kept aloof from them. Later, 
however, they began to mingle with the former in- 
habitants, so that their descendants partly lost the 
ancestral complexion. A still later Aryan incursion 
declined to have intercourse with the descendants 
of those who last preceded them. Thus we have 
four classes divided upon the basis of colour, or 
varna^ which may correspond with the four great 
original castes of India. 

The traditional theory of the Hindus themselves, 
in reference to caste origin, is admirably simple and 
quite adequate to satisfy ninety-nine per cent of the 
devotees of that faith to-day. Brahma, the first god 
of the Hindu triad, the Creator, was the immediate 
source and founder of the caste order ; for he caused, 
it is said, the august Brahman to proceed out of his 
divine mouth, while the warlike and royal Kshatriya 
emanated from his shoulders, the trading, commercial 
Vaisya, from his thighs, and the menial Sudra, from 
his feet. And from these four primal classes have 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 95 

descended, through myriads of permutations and min- 
glings, the present hydra-headed caste organization. 

But modern and scientific students of the social 
order of India entirely discard and ignore all Hindu 
mythical explanations and Puranic legends concern- 
ing this subject, and endeavour to trace the present 
system to its sources and primal causes through 
patient historic research and through a most elabo- 
rate system of anthropometric and ethnographic ex- 
aminations conducted all over the land. The subject, 
however, is so vast and complicated that authorities 
upon the subject are still considerably at variance in 
their theories of origin. We may conveniently 
classify the prevailing theories, according to their 
emphasis, as follows : — 

{a) The Religious Theory. — This gives emphasis 
to the religious influence as the dominant one in the 
formation of the social order of the land. It is main- 
tained that the clever and unscrupulous Brahman has, 
to a large extent, originated it and nursed it into its 
present wonderful proportions, in order to create and 
perpetuate his own supremacy among the people of 
India. As the spiritual head of Hinduism, and the 
recognized source of religious power among its 
devotees, he required and devised this organization, 



96 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

with himself as its undisputed head, and with a dis- 
tinct recognition by all others of his supremacy in 
the Hindu faith as a conditio sine qua non of their 
admission as castes into the Hindu system. Up to 
the present day, the public acceptance of the supreme 
religious authority of the Brahman is one of the 
two conditions which qualify any people to admis- 
sion into the sisterhood of Hindu castes. The other 
condition is separation from all other peoples in 
matters which will be hereafter mentioned. 

There are potent reasons for accepting this theory ; 
for the strongly entrenched position which religion still 
holds in the system, both as a basis and as a regulator, 
notwithstanding other antagonizing influences, is a 
testimony to its original place and power therein. 
Any social order whose direction is regulated by 
social injunctions and whose forms and ritual are 
enforced by religious penalties must be recognized as 
a mighty religious system. 

{b) The Tribal Theory. — Moreover, there were 
many aboriginal tribes which entered the ranks of 
Hinduism through the formation of new castes. Mr. 
Risley, in the Census of 1901, refers to such. (See Vol. 
I, p. 521). They gradually abandoned their old tribal 
customs and entered upon new paths which brought 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 97 

them into conformity with Hindu usages. Or in 
some cases they preserved tribal habits and even their 
tribal totems, and baptized them into the new faith and 
thus became separate castes in the Hindu order. 

As in the past, so " all over India at the present 
moment there is going on a process of the gradual 
and insensible transformation of tribes into castes. 
The stages of this operation are in themselves difficult 
to trace. . . . They usually set up as Rajputs, their 
first step being to start a Brahman priest, who invents 
for them a mythical ancestor, supplies them with a 
family miracle connected with the locality where their 
tribes are settled, and discovers that they belong to 
some hitherto unheard-of clan of the great Rajput 
community." (Census 1901, Vol. H, p. 519.) It is 
precisely the same process which brought the many 
Dravidian and even more primitive tribes of South 
India into the Hindu fold ; and it is a curious fact 
that these same people are to-day the greatest sticklers 
in the land for caste and its myriad rules. 

ic) The Social Theory. — Some hold with Sir 
Denzil Ibbetson, in the Census Report of i88i,"that 
caste is far more a social than a religious institution ; 
that it has no necessary connection whatever with the 
Hindu religion, further than that under that religion 



98 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

certain ideas and customs common to all primitive 
nations have been developed and perpetuated in an 
unusual degree." This is acknowledged to be an 
exaggerated statement. It may possibly be true that 
"caste has no necessary connection with Hinduism," 
but it is emphatically true that caste, as understood 
by all, does not exist apart from that faith. 

It is, however, a fact that divisions have occurred 
within castes, owing to the development of slight social 
differences between the members. For instance, sev- 
eral castes have been created by the degradation 
of members of the existing castes on account of their 
marriage of widows. The Pandarams of South India 
are held in distinction among the begging castes 
because of their abstention from meat, alcohol, and 
widow marriage. Indeed, it is interesting to note that 
a former caste status has been more frequently lost by, 
and degradation to a new caste has been consequent 
upon, the adoption of widow marriage, than through 
almost any other act. And, at present, this prohi- 
bition of the marriage of widows, including child 
widows, is the most tenaciously and unrighteously 
enforced caste custom in India. 

id) The Occupational Theory. — All regard fellow- 
ship in the same trade, or occupation, as the most 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 



99 



prolific source of caste alignment, in modern times at 
least. Ibbetson contends that " the whole basis of 
diversity of caste is diversity of occupation. The old 
division into Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra, and 
Mlechha, or outcast, who is below the Sudra, is but a 
division into the priest, the warrior, the husbandman, 
the artisan, and the menial. . . . William Priest, John 
King, Edward Farmer, and James Smith are but the 
survivals in England of the four varnas of Manu." 
(Census of 1881.) This statement needs serious qual- 
ification. Farming, which is followed to-day by a 
majority of the population of India, is an occupation 
which is subsidized by no caste and is followed prac- 
tically by the members of all castes. The Brahmans 
are the only ones who are degraded by following the 
plough. And there is a growing number of trades, 
introduced by modern civilization, which have not yet 
been touched by the caste system, and which the enter- 
prising youth of different grades of Hindu society are 
entering with eagerness. And yet, while this is a fact, 
it is equally true that the functional type of castes is 
developing and spreading much more rapidly than any 
other. In the town of Madura, a few of the families, 
from the weaver caste, opened a remunerative trade in 
the manufacture of fireworks. They at first began 



loo INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

it as an extra, to add to their very meagre income. 
Gradually it encroached upon their time until it 
became their sole occupation. To-day they are pros- 
pering in their new trade. But to them and their 
castemen their change of trade involves the transfer of 
caste relations. No longer being weavers, they do 
not see how they can continue to be bound by ties 
to their former castemen or former fellow-tradesmen ; 
hence the old connubial and convivial bonds of caste 
are relaxing, and the weavers decline to have fellow- 
ship with them as formerly on these lines. Thus, in 
all parts of the land, we have present-day illustrations 
of the creation of functional castes. And it is an 
interesting inquiry whether this mania for creating a 
new caste for every rising trade and occupation will 
finally overcome and absorb all occupations created 
by the demands of modern life and advancing civiliza- 
tion, or whether it will in time succumb to the spirit 
of modern progress until all occupations shall be eman- 
cipated from the tyranny of caste and shall be open to 
all men who desire to enter them. 

(e) The Crossing Theory. — According to Manu's 
Dharma Sastra one might be led to believe, as Hindus 
do stoutly maintain, that nearly all modern castes have 
been created by interbreeding. Those caste laws of 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM loi 

twenty-five centuries ago taught that the offspring of 
the union of a woman of higher with a man of lower 
caste could belong to the caste of neither parent, and 
therefore formed a new and a separate caste. The 
names of castes thus formed are given with much 
detail in Manu's works. But it does not require much 
wisdom for one to perceive the absurdity of the work- 
ing out of such a system, and the impossibility con- 
nected with it as an adequate basis for the caste 
organization of the present day. Yet interbreeding 
has doubtless been an important element in the elabo- 
ration of the stupendous caste organization. We have 
abundant illustration of this very process and its results 
in modern times. Among the Dravidians, especially, 
there are many castes which trace their origin to 
miscegenation. Among the Munda tribe we find nine 
such divisions; also five among the Mahilis, who them- 
selves claim their descent from the union of a Munda 
with a Santhal woman. 

This will not be unexpected when it is remembered 
that endogamy is the prime law of most Hindu castes ; 
and this, too, in a land where immorality and adultery 
are so prevalent. Other sources of Hindu castes are 
mentioned. Some, like the Mahrattas, have behind 
them national traditions, and a histoiy to which they 



I02 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

refer and of which they are proud. Others, still, have, 
by migrating from the home of the mother caste, sev- 
ered their connection from the parent stock and have 
formed a separate and independent caste. 

It is unnecessary to state that not one of the above 
theories is adequate to account for all the existing 
castes of the land. These forces have entered, with 
varying degrees of efiBciency, into their structure, — one 
being dominant as a causal power in one, and another 
in another. And yet it may be stated that of all these 
caste-producing forces religion and occupation have 
had marked preeminence ; and they are more influential 
to-day than ever before. 

II 

We shall next consider the various Characteristics 
or Manifestations of Caste. The system is a very 
flexible one ; and yet its characteristics are practically 
the same in all parts of the country. Perhaps the best 
way to clearly describe these to a western reader is to 
quote at length what we may call Mr. Risley's capital 
western paraphrase of the system in Blackwood's Mag- 
azine, a decade ago. " Let us," he writes, "imagine 
the great tribe of Smith ... in which all the subtle 
nuances of social merit and demerit have been set and 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 



103 



hardened into positive regulations affecting the inter- 
marriage of families. The caste thus formed would 
trace its origin back to a mythical eponymous ancestor, 
the first Smith, who converted the rough stone hatchet 
into the bronze battle-axe and took his name from the 
smooth ' weapons that he wrought for his tribe. 
Bound together by this tie of common descent they 
would recognize as the cardinal doctrine of their com- 
munity the rule that a Smith must always marry a 
Smith, and could by no possibility marry a Brown or 
a Jones. But, over and above this general canon, two 
other modes or principles of grouping within the caste 
would be conspicuous. First of all, the entire caste of 
Smith would be split up into an indefinite number of 
in-marrying clans, based upon all sorts of trivial dis- 
tinctions. Brewing Smiths and baking Smiths, 
hunting Smiths and shooting Smiths, temperance 
Smiths and licensed victualler Smiths, Smiths with 
double-barrelled names and hyphens. Smiths with 
double-barrelled names without hyphens. Conservative 
Smiths and Radical Smiths, tinker Smiths, tailor 
Smiths, Smiths of Mercia, Smiths of Wessex, — all these 
and all other imaginable varieties of the tribe Smith 
would be, as it were, crystallized by an inexorable law 
forbidding the members of any of these groups to 



I04 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

marry beyond the circle marked out by the clan 
name. . . . Thus a Hyphen-Smith could only marry a 
Hyphen-Smith, and so on. Secondly, and this is the 
point which I more especially wish to bring out here, 
running through this endless series of clans we should 
find another principle at work breaking up each clan 
into three or four smaller groups which form a sort of 
ascending scale of social distinction. Thus the clan 
of Hyphen-Smiths, which we take to be the cream of 
the caste — the Smiths who have attained the crowning 
glory of double names securely welded together by 
hyphens — would be again divided into, let us say, 
Anglican, Dissenting, and Salvationist Hyphen- 
Smiths, taking ordinary rank in that order. Now the 
rule of these groups would be that a man of the 
Anglican could marry a woman of any group, that a 
man of the Dissenting group could marry into his own 
or the lowest group, while the Salvationist Smith could 
only marry into his own group. A woman could, 
under no circumstance, marry down into a group below 
her. Other things being equal, it is clear that two- 
thirds of the Anglican girls would get no husbands, and 
two-thirds of the Salvationist men no wives. These 
are some of the restrictions which would control the 
process of match-making among the Smiths if they 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 105 

were organized in a caste of the Indian type. There 
would also be restrictions as to food. The different 
in-marrying clans would be precluded from marrying 
together, and their possibilities of reciprocal entertain- 
ment would be limited to those products of the con- 
fectioners' shops into the composition of which water, 
the most fatal and effective vehicle of ceremonial 
impurity, had not entered. Fire purifies, water pollutes. 
It would follow in fact that they could eat chocolates 
and other sweetmeats together, but could not drink 
tea or coffee, and could only partake of ices if they 
were made without water and were served on metal, 
not porcelain, plates." 

Mr. Risley might have added considerably to these 
restrictions and limitations without exhausting the 
catalogue. 

Let us briefly enumerate those elements which enter 
into caste. The first and the most important is inter- 
marriage within the caste. None except members of 
totemistic castes can, with impunity, look beyond the 
sacred borders of their own caste for conjugal bliss. 
So long as castes remain endogamous they will preserve 
their integrity, and their foundations will never be 
removed. This is \\-\q fons et origo of caste perpetuity. 
All other characteristics may pass away ; if this remain, 



io6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

all is well with the organization. And it is this which 
remains with devilish pertinacity and mischief-working 
power in the infant Native Christian Church of India. 
It is this same extreme evil which the social reformers 
of India are trying to puncture. But all that they 
dare to struggle and hope for is the right of members 
of subdivisions of any caste to intermarry. A genera- 
tion ago, there were 1886 divisions in the Brahman 
caste alone, no two of which could enjoy connubial or 
convivial privileges together. It is not up to the most 
sanguine reformer of India to seek that all Brahmans 
enjoy the right of intermarrying, — he only asks that 
the divisions among the Brahmans may be reduced, 
and intermarriage may be sanctioned among sub- 
divisions. Yet even this meagre quest is not likely to 
be gratified. This is not surprising, for the defenders 
of the system well know that if this stronghold of 
caste is at all weakened, the whole will speedily yield 
to modern attack. This, doubtless, is the reason why 
orthodox Hindus are so vehement in their opposition 
to any and all endeavour to remove the many disabili- 
ties and cruelties which the marriage regulations of 
the land inflict upon Hindu women. There is no land 
under the sun whose weaker sex suffer more from 
marital legislation than India; and yet the people 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 107 

can do nothing practically to remedy the crying 
evils of the same, simply because the mighty engine 
of caste is arrayed against them. Its perpetuity is 
linked closely with the resistance of all efforts at 
reform. 

Next in importance to the connubial is the con- 
vivial legislation of caste. It is the business of every 
member of a caste to conserve the purity of his gens 
by eating only with his fellow-castemen. Under no — 
circumstance can he inter-dine with those of a caste 
below his own. The dictates of caste in this matter 
are sometimes beyond understanding. Not only must 
a man eat with those of his own connection ; he must 
be very scrupulous as to the source of the articles 
which he is about to eat; he must know who handled 
them, and especially who cooked them. Some arti- 
cles of food, such as fruit, are not subject to pollution ; 
while others, preeminently water, are to be very care- 
fully guarded against the polluting touch of the lower 
castes. The writer has entered a railway car and 
accidentally touched a Brahman's water-pot under the 
seat, whereupon the disgusted owner seized the vessel 
and immediately poured out of the car window all its 
contents. It has been truly said that that monster of '^ " ^ 
cruelty, Nana Sahib of Cawnpore, was able, without 



io8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

any violation of caste rules, to massacre many inno- 
cent English women and children at the time of the 
great Mutiny ; but to drink a cup of water out of the 
hand of one of those tender victims of his treachery 
and rage would have been a mortal sin against caste, 
such as could be atoned for only in future births and 
by the fiery tortures of hell ! The rationale of this 
interdiction is doubtless the desire to preserve the 
purity of caste blood. As food becomes a part of the 
body, and, as the Hindu thinks, of the life, it is im- 
perative that all the members of a caste shall eat only 
the same kind of food, and also that which has not 
been subjected to the ceremonially polluting touch of 
outsiders. 

This urgency is increased by the fact that different 
castes proscribe different articles of diet. The Sivar, 
so-called, are strict vegetarians, and will have abso- 
lutely no communion in food with meat-eaters, even 
though the latter may belong to a higher caste than 
themselves. Meat of any kind is an abomination 
to them. Other respectable castes will touch only 
chicken meat, others mutton, a very few pork, while 
no caste will permit its members to eat beef. No sin 
is regarded by the orthodox with more horror than! 
that of killing and eating the flesh of the cow, — the! 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 109 

most sacred and most commonly worshipped animal 
of India. 

These convivial rules of caste are the greatest 
obstacles to social union and fellowship among the 
people of India. Westerners hardly realize the extent 
to which their communion is based upon the con- 
vivial habit. Many times a friendship which lasts a 
lifetime is formed by strangers sitting together at the 
common dinner table. And, in the same way, are the 
old friendships of life generally renewed and cemented 
in the West. And it is a significant fact that the 
Christian faith antagonizes Hinduism at this very 
point by enacting that its great Sacrament of love 
and communion of life in Christ be embodied in a 
perpetual and universal "drinking of the same cup 
and eating of the same bread-" In nothing is Hindu- 
ism becoming more manifestly a burden to the edu- 
cated community than in this restriction about inter- 
dining; and in nothing are they more ready, as we 
shall see later, to violate caste customs than in this 
matter. 

Then comes, as a natural consequence of the above, 
limitations to the contact of persons of differing castes. 
If a Brahman cannot eat with a Sudra, because it sup- 
posedly brings a taint to his pure blood, no more can 



no INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

he, with impunity, come into personal contact with 
him. The touch of such is pollution to his august 
and pure person; and the very air the low castes 
breathe brings to his soul and body taint and poison. 
This idea of ceremonial pollution by contact causes 
great inconvenience and trouble, and for that reason 
has been considerably mitigated or modified in recent 
times. The Rajah of Cochin, who lives temporarily 
near the writer, and who is evidently a stickler for 
caste observances, receives calls from European 
friends only before nine o'clock in the morning, for 
the obvious reason that that is the hour of his daily 
ablution. The Maharajah of Travancore bathes at 
7 A.M. daily; hence, intending European guests find 
reception only before that early hour. In the State 
of Travancore, in which Brahmanical influence is 
great, even the high caste Nair cannot touch, though 
he may approach, a Namburi Brahman. A member 
of the artisan castes will pollute his holiness twenty- 
four feet off; cultivators at forty-eight feet; the beef- 
eating Pariah at sixty-four feet. Like the Palestinian 
leper of old, the low-caste man of that part of India 
was, until recently, expected to leave the road when 
he saw a Brahman come, and remove his polluting 
person to the required number of feet from his sa.crec 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM iii 

presence. Low-caste witnesses were not allowed to 
approacli a court of justice, but standing without, at 
the requisite distance, to yell their testimony to the 
Brahman judge who sat in uncontaminated purity 
within. The falling of the shadow of a low-caste 
person upon any Brahman in India necessitates an 
ablution on the part of the latter. It is this frequency 
of contaminating and polluting contingencies in the 
life of the Brahman which requires of him so many 
ablutions daily, and which renders him perhaps the 
cleanest in person among the sons of men. So many 
are the dangers of contamination which daily beset 
him in the ordinary pursuits of life that relief in the 
form of dispensations is granted him, so as to reduce 
the ceremonies and diminish the extreme burden of 
religious observance. This law of contact and pollu- 
tion must weigh heavily upon any genuine Hindu of 
high caste. The relation of the Maharajah of Trav- 
ancore to his Prime Minister, who is a Brahman, is 
an interesting illustration. The Rajah is not a born 
Brahman ; he is by many of his people regarded as a 
manufactured Brahman. But His Highness himself 
does not regard himself as equal, in sacred manhood, 
to his Brahman Prime Minister; hence he will never 
be seated in his presence. Nor will the Brahman 



1 12 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Dewan deign to sit in the presence of his royal mas- 
ter, the Maharajah. Hence all the business of State 
(sometimes requiring conferences of three hours a 
day) is transacted by them while standing in each 
other's presence. 

Occupational limitations are observed, as we have 
already seen, by many modern castes. Trade castes 
not only prescribe the one ancestral occupation to 
their members; they also, with equal distinctness and 
severity, prohibit to all within their ranks any other 
work or trade. So in all those legion castes not 
only has a man his social sphere and status as- 
signed to him, he is also tied to the trade of his 
ancestors; yea, more, he is expected to confine him- 
self to ancestral tools and methods of work in that 
narrow rut of life. One day the writer was accosted 
by a weaver who was in a famishing condition. He 
made a pathetic plea for charity. Manchester cloths 
were flooding the market; they therefore could not 
sell the products of their labour at living rates. It 
was suggested that they take up some other trade 
that could furnish them a decent living. He lifted 
up his hands in horror at the impious suggestion, that 
they abandon their caste-prescribed occupation! He 
felt that he and his were ground between the upper 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 113 

and nether millstones. To suggest to him that they 
even change the kind or style of article which they 
prepared upon their looms for the market would have 
been equally impossible. Out in the villages, where 
these people live, it would seem almost as absurd for 
the weaver to become a carpenter as for the weaver 
who uses only cotton thread to become a silk-weaver, 
or for those who weave coarse white cloths to produce 
the finer coloured cloths worn by the women. No ; 
for generations their people have given themselves 
to the production of only one article. " It is the 
custom of our people " is the final word. And what 
has become customary is by caste enactment made 
obligatory. And woe be to him who defies caste. 
And thus the caste-prescribed trade becomes the 
be-all and the end-all of life. 

These four — the connubial, the convivial, the 
contactual, and the occupational — are the constant 
factors of the caste existence and activity in India. 
But in addition to these, caste takes other functions 
and assumes other forms in certain localities and 
under certain circumstances. Definite forms of reli- 
gious observance are often enjoined, certain places of 
pilgrimage are sanctioned, marriage forms prescribed, 
marriage obligations defined, divorce made possible 



114 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

or impossible, and the limit of marriage expenses set. 
There is hardly a department of life or a duty which 
men owe to their dead which does not enter the 
domain of caste legislation somewhere or other. 

A strange and very interesting peculiarity of certain 
castes is their totemistic aspect. This characteristic 
has only recently been discovered. " At the bottom 
of the social system, as understood by the average 
Hindu, we find, in the Dravidian region of India, a 
large body of tribes and castes each of which is broken 
up into a number of totemistic septs. Each sept bears 
the name of an animal, a tree, a plant, or some mate- 
rial object, natural or artificial, which the members of 
that sept are prohibited from tilling, eating, cutting, 
burning, carrying, using, etc." (See Census of 1901, 
Vol. II, pp. 530-535-) 

Mr. J. G. Frazer, in the Fortnightly Review^ gives 
the following description of the totem: "A totem is 
a class of natural phenomena or material objects — 
most commonly a species of animals or plants — 
between which and himself the savage believes that 
a certain intimate relation exists. . . . This relation 
leads the savage to abstain from killing or eating his 
totem, if it happen to be a species of animal or plant. 
Further, the group of persons who are knit to any 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 115 

particular totem by this mysterious tie commonly bear 
the name of the totem, believe themselves to be of one 
blood, and strictly refuse to sanction the marriage or 
cohabitation of members of the group with each other. 
This prohibition to marry within the group is now 
generally called by the name Exogamy. Thus totem- 
ism has commonly been treated as a primitive system, 
both of religion and of society." 

In absorbing the Dravidian tribes, Brahmanism 
appropriated the totemistic cult and incorporated it 
into the caste system. And many Dravidian castes 
which are identified with this cult have the striking 
peculiarity of being exogamous as contrasted with the 
endogamy of the Aryan section of Hindu castes. 

Ill 

The penalties which are inflicted by caste for 
violation of its rules are many and very severe. It is 
hardly too much to say that there is not on earth an 
organization more absolute in its power, more wide- 
reaching in its sweep of interests, and more crushing 
in its punishment, than is caste. In the first place, 
it so completely hems in the life of a man, impera- 
tively prescribes for him the routine of life, even down 
to the most insignificant details, and thus shuts him 



ii6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

up to his own clan, and with equal completeness cuts 
him off from the members of other castes, that it can 
reduce any recalcitrant member to certain and speedy 
obedience, simply because there is no one to whom he 
can flee for sympathy and refuge. Even if this whole 
system had not, as its first aim and achievement, the 
alienation of members of different castes, who is there 
among Hindus that would interfere with this function 
of a caste to discipline its members ? For is not 
" Thou shalt obey implicitly thy caste," the first law 
of the Hindu decalogue, and the one most sincerely 
believed by all Hindus? The following are among 
the penalties inflicted upon one who is under the ban 
of his caste : — 

All the members of his caste are prohibited from 
accepting his hospitality. Not even his own house- 
hold are permitted to dine with him. He is boycotted, 
absolutely, by all his best friends, associates, and com- 
panions. Not one of them dares, under penalty of 
complete ostracism, to harbour or favour him. Nor 
will he be invited to their homes. They dare not 
receive him under the shelter of their roofs nor offer 
him food. More than once the writer has seen the 
bitter tyranny of caste brought to bear upon those who 
had abandoned caste by becoming Christians. Here 




THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 117 

is a youth known to the writer. He is a member of a 
respectable caste. He accepts the religion of Christ 
publicly as his own. His parents and brothers and 
sister will cling to him with the hope of bringing him 
back to the ancestral faith. But caste authority steps 
in. It forbids the family to receive the son and 
brother, or to offer him a morsel of food. In that 
household a sad war of sentiment is inaueurated. 
Parental love and family tenderness cling to the Chris- 
tian youth ; and is he not the hope of the family for 
the years to come ? But to harbour him means to be 
outcast as a family; and how can they endure that? 
And are they not at heart loyal to the caste of their 
fathers.? So the conflict runs on for months. One 
night only the tender heart of the sister compels her 
to defy caste to the extent, not of eating with the dear 
brother and companion of her youth, but so far as to 
bring him the remnant of their meal, not in one of the 
home vessels from which he had eaten so often as a 
Hindu in the past, but on a plantain leaf and behind 
the house ! 

Then, of course, comes the connubial ban whereby 
all the members of the caste are prohibited from giving 
any of their children in marriage to those of his house- 
hold. To the Hindu who believes that marriage is 



ii8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

not only the God-given right of every human being, 
but who also implicitly believes that it is a heavenly 
injunction whose fulfilment rests as a duty upon every 
father in behalf of his children, this interdict is the 
most oppressive of all. But it is enforced with heart- 
less severity in every case ; and any family which may 
defy the caste in this respect by entering into conjugal 
relationship with that of the one under ban, is at once 
outcast. 

Another mighty resource of the organization, in this 
connection, is to interdict to the recreant member the 
use of all caste servants. For instance, the caste barber 
and washerman are commanded to serve him and his 
no longer. The severity of this interdiction cannot 
possibly be realized by westerners, who are not always 
dependent upon these functionaries. But in India 
every one depends upon the barber and washerman for 
their service even more than a westerner does upon 
the service of the butcher or the doctor. The Hindu 
never dreams of the possibility of doing for himself 
the duties performed by these caste servants for him. 
Moreover, the barbers and washermen of other castes 
would, under no circumstance, be allowed to render 
him the service thus prohibited to him by his own 
caste. 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 119 

Add again to these inflictions the further one of 
complete isolation in times of domestic bereavement. 
Should a member of his family die, not one of the caste 
members is permitted to help in the last sacred rites 
for the dead. Even at that moment, when one would 
expect the icy barriers to melt away, the heart of caste 
is as hard and its severity as rigid as ever. The help- 
lessness of a family under these circumstances is, to 
any one who is not a slave to the whole accursed sys- 
tem, most pitiful and heartrending. 

Another caste penalty which has received undue 
public prominence of late is called prayaschitta^ which 
means atonement. It is usually applied as punishment 
to those who have had the temerity to cross the ocean 
for foreign travel, business, or study. More correctly, 
it is rather a process of cleansing and ceremonial re- 
habilitation than an act of punishment. The exclu- 
siveness of caste delighted in calling all foreigners 
Mlechhas, which, though perhaps not as vigorous a 
term as the Chinese sobriquet, "black devils," con- 
noted, and still connotes, to the caste Hindu, "unclean 
wretches," contact with whom brings ceremonial pollu- 
tion and sin. He who crossed the ocean would nec- 
essarily be debased by these defiling ones and would 
be, as a matter of course, engulfed in the pollutions 



120 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of their life ! To prohibit travel, which necessarily- 
involved such sin and degradation, became there- 
fore the concern of the ancient lawmakers of India. 
Hence the prayaschitta, under which the educated 
community of India chafe so much at the present 
time. For many of the best and most promising 
youth of India travel abroad or reside temporarily in 
England, with a view to perfecting their educational 
training so as to qualify themselves for highest posi- 
tions of usefulness in the homeland. Others go 
abroad on business or to behold and study the wonders 
of western life and civilization. All men of culture 
and power in India, at the present time, are convinced 
of the evil and absurdity of this caste law, which is 
common to all castes, because it is a part of the gen- 
eral legislation of their religion. They decline to be- 
lieve that it is either sin or pollution to go in search 
of the best that the West and the East have discov- 
ered and can bestow upon one, and that which is to-day 
doing most in the elevation and redemption of India 
herself. And many of them are defying this obsolete 
and debasing law of their faith. Many others are cry- 
ing for a modern interpretation of the law — an inter- 
pretation which will explain away its bitterness and 
render it innocuous. For it is not simply or chiefly 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 121 

the reactionary and absurd character of this legislation 
which exasperates the intelligence of the land ; it is 
the very offensive and revolting nature of the expia- 
tion which preeminently stirs up the rebellion. In 
former centuries of darkness, Hindus may have been 
willing to submit to the humiliation of eating the five 
products of the cow as an atonement for the supposed 
sin of sea-travel. The culture and intelligence of the 
present time is neither so abject nor so superstitious 
as to submit to this, without, at least, a vigorous pro- 
test. And yet, what the culture of India seeks to-day 
is not the abolishing of this law, which is equally re- 
pulsive to their taste and to their intelligence ; it asks 
only that some way of avoiding the penalty may be 
found ! And all that Hinduism and caste require 
of these foreign-travelled men is not an intelligent 
submission to its behests, but an outward observance 
of them. So the faith and its conservative defenders 
are satisfied to see these men of culture, as they return 
with the acquired treasures of the West, submit out- 
wardly to this offensive rite, while their sensitive 
nature rises in rebellion against it. And these young 
scions of the East willingly practise this hypocrisy and 
submit to this indignity in order to live at peace with, 
and indeed to live at all in, their ancestral caste ! It 



122 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

is only an illustration of the hollowness of the major 
part of the life of the educated community in this great 
land. Well may one exclaim, what can be expected 
from a people whose leading men of culture are living 
this double and mean life ! This is verily " peace with 
dishonour"! 



CHAPTER V 

THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM [continued) 

IV 

The agency through which, and the occasion upon 
which, caste penaUzes its members are manifold. 

Formerly, Hindu kings, under instruction from 
their pandit ministers, would enforce caste observ- 
ances. But under the present non-Hindu State no 
such action could be expected. In many instances 
pandits have to be consulted both as to whether a 
member has really violated shastraic injunctions and 
as to the penalty which should be inflicted in that 
special case. In doubtful cases, pandits of various 
trainings and leanings are called who present con- 
flicting opinions which end in confusion. 

In Southern India important cases of caste viola- 
tion among non-Vishnuvite Hindus are under the 
jurisdiction of the Superiors of Sankarite monasteries. 
Some of these assume and exercise Papal authority 
in such matters among their people. Usually, how- 
ever, each local caste organization deals directly with 

123 



124 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

infractions of its own rules, and is competent to deal 
drastically, and as a court of final resort, with all cases 
of caste infringement within its own membership. 
It may be done in public assembly, when all male 
members are present and have a voice ; or the caste 
panchayat, or council of five, may sit in judgment 
upon the case and have right of final action. This 
latter tribunal is the more common in South India, 
and is more in harmony with the spirit and methods 
of the land. 

There are a number of courses of action which are 
adequate as causes of removal from caste. 

One of these is a change of faith. The abandon- 
ment of the ancestral religion, which is the mother 
of caste spirit and organization, especially when the 
newly accepted faith repudiates openly caste and all 
that belongs to it, inevitably leads to expulsion from 
caste. In most cases this has resulted upon conver- 
sion to either Christianity or Mohammedanism. But 
this is not as universal as we could wish or as many 
suppose, as we shall see later on. It may be seen 
how, in a mass movement of a large body of men 
toward Christianity, for instance, the people may 
easily, and would naturally, carry with them into the 
new faith many of their old customs and habits, in- 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 125 

eluding much that pertains to, and is of the essence 
of, caste. 

Roman Catholicism has interpreted caste chiefly 
from a social standpoint, and has therefore regarded it 
as a social institution which can be adapted to, and 
adopted into, the Christian religion. Protestantism, 
or, at least, Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, has regarded 
caste as primarily and dominantly a religious institu- 
tion, whose spirit antagonizes fundamentally our faith, 
and which must be opposed at all points. Hence it 
is a part of the pledge of every one who enters into 
the Protestant fellowship in India that he will eschew 
and oppose caste at all times. And it may be said 
that, though Hinduism loves dearly compromise and 
evasion, it has in the main held that a man who has 
accepted the Christian faith and has been publicly 
baptized into its conviction of the "fatherhood of 
God and the brotherhood of all men," has no place in 
its own caste system, and it consistently deals with him 
as with an outcast. As we have already seen, every 
man who has travelled abroad has lost thereby caste 
and has to undergo expiation before reinstatement. 
It matters not how thoroughly he has tried to preserve 
caste customs during his travels and in the foreign 
land, he is regarded by all as a de facto outcast. 



126 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Marrying a widow is also an act which severs caste 
ties and places a man under the ban. Of course, 
this applies not to the few castes which allow widow- 
remarriage. But as the bulk of Hindus deny the 
right of a widow to remarry (though there is no caste 
obstacle to a widower taking unto himself a new vir- 
gin wife every year of his life), a man cannot enter 
into an alliance with a widow without losing caste 
thereby. 

Beef-eating is regarded as so heinous a sin that no 
member of a respectable caste would expect considera- 
tion for a moment. And yet Dr. J. H. Barrows has 
said that the famous Swamy, Vivekanantha, when 
with him at Chicago, ate a whole plateful of beef in 
his presence and with a great deal of relish. But he, 
of course, had graduated out of the ordinary level of 
Hindu-hood into the sacred heights of Swamyhood, 
in which a man is exempt from the mean limitation 
of caste, and when the vulgar sins of common Hindu 
life are transmuted into the ordinary blessings and 
privileges of saintdom. 

In like manner, vegetarian castes punish their 
members for the eating of any meat. The Hindu 
aversion to meat is very common ; it is also sanitary 
and wholesome; for meat-eating in the tropics is 



I 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 127 

neither necessary nor conducive to health. And yet 
the Pariah outcast has no scruples in this matter. It 
is indeed true that he would deem it a sin to butcher 
a cow or an ox ; but he will not hesitate to poison his 
neighbour's cattle, that he may thereby have enough 
carrion to eat. For the carcases of the dead cattle of 
the village are the perquisite of the Pariah ; and it is 
upon finding such that he enjoys his only feasts of 
plenty. But to the ordinary Hindu all bovine kind 
are divine, and the flesh of the same is strictly and 
vehemently tabooed. 

Punishment is also dealt out, as we have seen, to 
those who eat any food cooked by an outcast, 
whether he be Christian, Mohammedan, or Pariah. 
And the same is true of eating with an outcast, 
or with one who is of a lower caste than himself. 
Indeed, so far is this spirit carried by certain high 
castes that to be seen eating by a member of a lower 
caste, or to allow the shadow of a stranger to fall 
upon one's prepared food, is pollution. Hence the 
care with which all Hindus seek privacy and avoid 
the gaze of men during mealtime. 

Officiating as a priest in the house of a low-class 
Sudra is strictly prohibited to a Brahman, and he 
loses caste thereby. He and other " twice born " 



128 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

are also driven out of caste if they throw away the 
sacred thread which is the outer badge of their 
second birth and dignity. 

A woman, when found in open sin with a man 
of another caste, and a widow, when she can no 
longer hide the consequence of her immorality, are 
no longer in caste. 

It is hardly necessary to mention that marrying 
outside of one's own caste is a sin which finds no 
countenance, but severest punishment, in nearly all 
castes. 

Generally speaking, we may say that caste author- 
ity is exercised only in cases where ceremonial ob- 
servance and social usages are violated. In matters 
that are purely ethical, and which bear upon the 
character and moral elevation of the individual and 
the clan, caste rarely acts; for it does not consider 
that its honour is compromised or its organic life 
impaired by such conduct. 

It should also be mentioned that caste is not 
even in the distribution of its dispensations and 
punishments. A man of wealth and social influ- 
ence succeeds in staving off many acts of caste 
displeasure which would fall heavily upon the poor 
and friendless man. Such a man may, and often 



II 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 129 

does, trample under foot every command of the 
decalogue, and at the same time defy and violate 
a good moiety of the injunctions of his caste. 
And yet, because of his wealth and general impor- 
tance in caste councils, he stands unimpeached 
and unrebuked. 

In matters of caste observance and discipline, 
villages are much more conservative and strict 
than cities. In the latter, as we shall see, caste 
observance is much relaxed, and life is more on 

modern lines. 

V 

The results of the caste system in India are 
many and manifest. It has sown its seed for many 
centuries and to-day reaps a rich harvest in life 
and conduct. It should not be assumed, and it 
cannot be asserted, that this great system has 
always been an unmixed evil to the people of 
this land. 

No organization which has bound by its fetters 
for eighty generations nearly a sixth of the popu- 
lation of the globe, and which continues to grip 
them to-day with tyrannical power, can be devoid 
of any redeeming feature. The very perpetuity 
and prosperity of the scheme argues for its posses- 



I30 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

sion of some rational features, originally connected 
with it, which gave it sanction to the myriads who 
have submitted to its reign over them. But it is 
exceedingly difficult to discover that excellence 
which originally commended it to the people of 
this land. Nor do the writings of those who have 
striven to defend the system assist us in making 
this discovery. A modern Brahman defence by 
Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya (see " Hindu Castes 
and Sects," pp. i-io) gives only one ray of light 
upon the subject when he observes that "the legis- 
I'ation of the Rishis was calculated not only to 
bring about union between the isolated clans 
that lived in primitive India, but to render it pos- 
sible to assimilate within each group the foreign 
hordes that were expected to pour into the country 
from time to time." In those remote days when 
weakness through isolation ^ threatened their very 
existence, and when there was no possibility of a 
general union of all the people for defence, thorough 
organization of clans into castes brought strength 
and confidence and was a conspicuous blessing. 
It was in those days a convenient and effective 
way of enforcing religious obligations upon the 
heterogeneous clans. It also was then probably 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 131 

useful in preserving purity of blood among the 
higher races, and in conserving the nobility of the 
Aryan who was destined to rule the mixed races 
of India for many centuries. 

Nor is the system without possibilities of good 
in modern times, as was illustrated recently by 
the action of a prominent North India caste in 
prohibiting large expenses in marriage and in rais- 
ing, by legislation, the limit of the marriageable 
age of its girls. 

But, alas, any good that may possibly inhere in 
the system has largely remained hi posse rather 
than in esse. The history of caste has been one 
of evil, and it is no wonder that such a fair-minded 
writer as Mr. Sherring, who has probably made a 
more thorough study of the subject than any other 
man, should call the organization "a monstrous 
engine of pride, dissension, and shame " (see Pref- 
ace to his " Hindu Tribes and Castes "). Consider- 
ing the subject, therefore, in its bearing upon the 
life of India to-day, and studying its results as we 
now find them among all classes of the people 
and in their definite bearing upon the future of 
the land, we are compelled to pronounce against 
it at all points. 



132 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

It is, in the first place, the source of intermi- 
nable discord and dissension all over the land. It 
not only arrays caste against caste ; but bitter 
animosity is the order of the day among the sub- 
divisions of castes. In every one of the numberless 
castes in the land there are divisions and subdi- 
visions galore. And while the Sudras acknowledge 
the supremacy of the "twice born," among the 
myriad clans of the Sudras themselves there is 
endless assumption and contention, every one, 
fomented by pride, claiming primacy and distinction 
above the others. Recently, in South India, this 
feeling led to a serious riot, in which not a few 
lives were lost and villages devastated. 

It also narrows the sympathies of the people in 
a most lamentable way. Among the common people 
of India it is held that a man's duties to his caste 
embrace his whole obligation. When a fellow-being 
is in difficulty and his condition strongly appeals 
for sympathy, the first, and often the last, question 
asked is, " Is he a member of my caste ? " If 
not, like the priest and the Levite of old, his con- 
science allows him to "pass by on the other side." 
Recently a woman perished in the streets of a town 
near Madura. She was a resident of a village some 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 133 

twenty-five miles away, and was, therefore, a stranger 
in this town, where she sickened and was carried 
to a public rest-house. But when her condition 
became serious and no relatives or caste friends 
came to her support, she was put out into the street, 
where she lay helpless for three days in the rain 
and sunshine. Hundreds of people saw her dying 
agonies as they passed by during those days; but 
no heart of sympathy went out to her; for was she 
not a stranger? And it was left to an American, 
who happened to pass that way on the third day, 
to demand of the town officer that she be put back 
in the rest-house, where she shortly afterward died. 
Let it not be thought that this is an isolated case. 
He who is familiar with Indian life knows it is 
not, for daily he has to witness the woful limitations 
which caste imposes upon human sympathy. 

Caste has also degraded manual labour. The loss 
of caste by any Brahman who follows the plough is 
only an application of this rule in the highest quar- 
ters. Caste has taught the people of this land that 
humble toil, however honest it may be, is more than 
mean ; it is sinful. There are millions of the higher 
castes of India who deem it honourable to beg, and 
dignified to spend their years in abject laziness, but 



134 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

who would regard it as unspeakable degradation to 
take a hoe or a hammer and earn an honest living 
by the sweat of their brow. Nor will their caste rules 
permit of their undertaking such work. And this 
spirit has passed down the ranks until it pervades the 
whole of society in India, with the consequence that 
manual labour is universally regarded as degrading, 
and with the further natural result that a horde of 
five and a half millions of lazy, wretched, immoral, 
able-bodied, religious beggars are burdening this land. 
And thus mendicancy is made honourable at the ex- 
pense of honest toil. It should be further remarked 
that there are a number of begging castes, in which 
all work is proscribed and mendicity exalted into a 
divinely ordained profession ! 

Moreover, caste makes it impossible for India to 
become a commercial country. So long as foreign 
travel is banned and contact with other lands is re- 
garded as a sin against heaven and caste, there is 
little hope that the people of this land will distinguish 
themselves in that kind of trade and commerce which 
has made India's mistress. Great Britain, so illustrious 
in wealth and dominion. 

And it is this caste spirit which so easily made the 
great peninsula of India a prey to the "tight little 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 13S 

island " many thousands of miles away. For not only 
has caste made the Hindus an insular people, it has 
also so divided them that they do not realize any 
common sentiment, save that of opposition to the 
State, or seek any common good. Hence they have 
for many centuries been the easy prey of any adven- 
turers who sought to overcome and despoil them. A 
genuine national feeling and a patriotic sentiment are 
all but impossible in the land. And all intelligent 
Hindus acknowledge this sad condition at present, 
and many of the best of them publicly maintain that 
national consciousness, self-rule, and a glowing, trium- 
phant patriotism can be built only upon the ruins of 
the caste system. 

And even as it is a foe to nationality, so is it the 
mortal enemy of individualism. The caste system is 
really a glorification of the multitude as against the 
individual. Individual initiative and assertion, liberty 
of conscience, the right of man to life and the pursuit 
of happiness, — all these are foibles of the West which 
it has been the chief business of caste to crush ; and 
upon their ruin it has erected this mighty tower of 
Babel. In India, it has been the business of men, 
from time immemorial, not to do what they think to 
be right, nor to find out, every one for himself, what 



136 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

they consider to be the best and to act according to 
the dictates of conscience ; it has rather been submis- 
sion to caste dominance. And it is the unblushing 
teaching of the Shastras that obedience to caste is the 
fulfilment of duty and the summum bonum of life. So 
omnipotent and omniscient is the arm and head of 
caste that men dare not defy it. Hence we are com- 
pelled to look in India to-day upon the saddest spec- 
tacle of abject manhood the world has known. To 
those who, like the writer, have spent a lifetime in 
trying to raise the outcasts and the lower strata of 
Indian society, the most difficult and discouraging 
obstacle is the inertia and the abjectness of the people 
themselves. Through a bitter experience of many 
centuries they have learned that it does not pay for 
the individual to assert himself against the dictates 
of the caste, or for the lower castes to rise in re- 
bellion against their lot. They discovered that they 
were merely butting their heads against an adaman- 
tine rock. So they have lost every ambition and 
hope ; and he who would lift them up must first re- 
move that leaden despair which rests upon them like 
a mighty incubus. 

Nor is it much better with the educated classes of 
India. There are hundreds of thousands of these 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 137 

men of western university training who annually 
assemble in Congress and in Convention, and who 
in spotless English of Addisonian accent and in the 
sonorous phraseology of a Macaulay, discourse upon 
human rights and who denounce the bondage of 
caste tyranny. And yet they submit, in their own 
homes, to that same accursed tyranny and are in life 
as abject as the meanest Pariah in the face of caste 
edicts which they know to be unrighteous and de- 
meanino^ to the core. 

It should also be remembered that caste is the 
foster-mother of all the manifold social evils of the 
land. In pre-caste days in India such evils as child 
marriage, prohibition of widow remarriage, temple 
women, excessive marriage expenses, etc., did not 
exist. They are a part of the caste regime supported 
and perpetuated by its authority. Remove this mighty 
compulsion, and these institutions would soon become 
things of the past. 

Another evil of this organization is that of ignoring — 
the ethical and spiritual standard and of measuring 
everything from a purely formal and ceremonial stand- 
point. All life is reduced into an unceasing ritual 
under the perpetual priestly surveillance of caste. 
All that it asks of man is outward conformity. He 



138 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

may disbelieve and hate every commandment of his 
faith ; but if he conforms, he is a faithful son. On 
the other hand, he may be a man of unblemished 
character, and he may even intend to be obedient to 
caste; but if, some night, a few enemies were to 
thrust into his mouth and compel him to swallow a 
piece of beef, no power could save him from the 
dreadful punishment that would follow. A man may 
write a tract in condemnation and ridicule of all the 
gods of the Hindu pantheon and still remain an ac- 
ceptable Hindu ; but if, in the agony of a burning 
fever, he should drink a spoonful of water from the 
hands of a Christian or of a Pariah, his caste would 
doom him to perdition for it. 

In other words, the whole system directly cultivates, 
in all the people, a hollowness of life which does more 
than anything else to rob India of her manhood and 
which makes nobility of character and ethical integrity 
most difficult things among the Hindu community. 
A Brahman gentleman described the whole system as 
a " vast hollow sham." And such it is. 

VI 

Paradoxical though it may seem, caste spirit is 
more prevalent and its influence more dominant in 
India at the present than in the past; yet there is 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 139 

more defiance and violation of caste rules and more 
frequent and sure evidences of the speedy termina- 
tion of its reign than at any previous time. 

It has ruled so long and so supremely in this coun- 
try that the Hindu accepts it without questioning; 
and it has become more than a second nature to him, 
even a necessity of his being. What would be intol- 
erably irksome to a Westerner is to the Hindu a mat- 
ter of course. To the rank and file of the Hindus, 
caste has ceased to be a matter of question. It is the 
only order of life with which he is conversant ; and 
while he may be convinced by arguments which prove 
its cruelty and its many evils, he still clings to it as 
the only system under which he knows how to live 
and which he cares to obey. 

As we have already seen, the ramifications of caste 
are more numerous and its authority more general 
to-day than at any former time. Many Hindu reform- 
ers, especially of the Vishnu sects, have followed in 
the steps of the great Buddha, by denouncing caste, 
root and branch, and have established their own sects 
during the last ten centuries on a non-caste basis. 
But they have all succumbed to the demon which 
they antagonized and now generally observe caste 
rules with the same devotion as other Hindus. 



I40 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

The lower the caste spirit has descended to the 
"submerged tenth" of the land, the more vehemently 
have they become inoculated with its virus. The out- 
cast Pariah is not to be outdone in this matter; and 
so we have Pariahs and Pariahs. Many divisions are 
found amiong this wretched class, and they are more 
exclusive in their divisions and more rigid in their 
narrowness than are many of the high castes. 

Even those who have abandoned the Hindu faith 
and professed another, do not leave behind them this 
divisive spirit. Perhaps the converts from Moham- 
medanism have eschewed Hindu caste more than 
converts to other faiths. 

Among Christian converts, though caste is profess- 
edly abandoned, it clings with vital tenacity and al- 
most unconquerable persistence to their sense of the 
fitness of things. Their deepest prejudices and un- 
conscious tendencies, even against their intellectual 
convictions and sincere professions, unceasingly sway 
the vast majority of them and lead them into affilia- 
tions and narrow sympathies which are Hindu and 
not Christian. It is true that the oldest Christian 
community in India, the Syrian Church of Malabar, 
has long abandoned the Hindu caste organization, 
with even its mean remnant of caste titles. And yet 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 143 

that community settled down for many centuries into 
the conviction that it was merely one caste among the 
many of that region and must keep itself aloof from 
and untainted by the surrounding castes. Roman 
Catholicism, which has still the most numerous Na- 
tive Christian community in India, has largely adopted 
the Hindu system and tries to utilize it in the further- 
ance of Christianity in the land ! No greater mistake 
was ever made than this of trying to uphold and pro- 
mulgate the meekness, the humility, the love, and the 
fellowship of Christ by means of the haughty pride, 
the cruel hate, and the bitter divisiveness of caste. 

Protestant Christianity is to-day the pronounced 
foe of caste. It is war to the death between them, 
and the missionaries have not yet found a foe to their 
cause so subtle, deceptive, deep-rooted, persistent, and 
pervasive as this. It is fortified by a thousand ram- 
parts and presents more discouragement to the Chris- 
tian worker than all other obstacles combined. Even 
Buddhism and Jainism, the former of which was the 
ancient protest against Hindu caste, have fallen oft- 
times a prey to the subtle and damning wiles of this 
system. In Bengal, a number of Hindu castes are 
known to have been formerly members of the Jain and 
Buddhist communities (see Census 1901, Vol. II, p. 523). 



144 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

However, notwithstanding this growing prevalence 
and the marvellous tenacity of caste throughout the 
land, there are encouraging signs of its decadence. 
Its grip is certainly relaxing in many ways, and its 
asperities are softening. 

It may not untruthfully be said that the growing 
multiplicity of castes is one of the sure harbingers of 
the downfall of the system. For the divisions of caste 
are already beyond computation. The population is 
cut up into so many minute sections that the caste 
edifice overtowers everything else, so that it is in 
imminent danger of toppling over. It is claimed that 
war among civilized nations will soon become an im- 
possibility because of the growing devastating power 
of modern weapons of warfare. In like manner, caste 
is speedily passing through its very excesses to a re- 
ductio ad absurdum; its spirit is so rampant, and its 
gross evils are becoming so intolerable, that even the 
patient inhabitants of India will soon cease to endure 
the ruin which this monster of their own creation 
carries on among them. 

Educated Hindus are already denouncing it with 
great vehemence and with considerable unanimity. 
They are convinced that India can never win inde- 
pendence and power under the regime of caste; 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 145 

and they proclaim their convictions upon the house- 
top. It is true, as we have seen, that caste has so 
powerfully thrown its spell over them, its own chil- 
dren, that they are too abject to withstand it openly 
and unitedly. But I believe that they will ere- 
long be driven to action. Further, obedience and 
submission will mean ruin to them, their families, 
and their country. 

Even now, among the educated, especially in 
Bengal, caste restrictions upon dining are being in- 
creasingly ignored. A Bengalee gentleman enjoys 
ordinary hotel fare with apparently none to inter- 
fere with his liberties. In Madras, the writer has 
more than once rubbed shoulders with Brahman 
lawyers and others eating together the common 
fare of a well-known restaurant of the city. And 
he has known Brahman patients, high in society, 
who did not object even to buy and use nourishment 
in the form of " Liebig's Beef-extract," so long as they 
could cover its offensiveness to the women of their 
household by the euphemistic name " meat-extract." 

And to this they are being rapidly carried by a 
conjunction of many forces which are increasingly 
dominating the land. 

In the first place, they have the potent example 



146 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of a host of western lives among them. This body 
of white people, from the far-off lands, is distributed 
all over India. They are the rulers of the land. 
A Brahman may deem their touch pollution. But 
that same Brahman is often glad to undergo that 
ceremonial taint if thereby he can only enjoy the 
white man's cultured society. He beholds in these 
people from the West a freedom from irksome 
caste restraints. He notices conjugal relations among 
them, such as furnish richest home blessings. Their 
social relations are untrammelled and abound in 
convivial privileges such as are denied to Hindu 
society. All this creates in him an uneasiness. 
If he is a man of culture and resides in some city 
of importance, he will wish to meet English friends 
upon lines of social equality; but this he will find 
to be impossible apart from his defiance of caste 
rules ; for, to the man of the West, the common 
cup and the festal board are the essential condi- 
tions of true friendship and intimacy. Thus the life 
of the ruling race in India is a constant rebuke to 
the narrowness of caste and a source of discontent 
to the caste-ridden people, because it reveals to 
them a different and a better way of living. 

Nor is it merely this new type of non-caste 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 147 

western life that appeals to them. The modern 
civilization of the West, with its humanizing laws, 
its exaltation of the individual, its religious freedom, 
its new and broadening education and culture, its 
equal rights to every man, its many institutions 
through every one of which there breathes the 
Anglo-Saxon's blessed love of liberty, the home 
with its sanctified affection and its glorified woman- 
hood, philanthropy which carries with an even hand 
its sweet services to the high and the low — to 
Pariah as to the Brahman, — all these institutions 
and influences are at work like a mighty leaven in 
the mind and heart of India. And the people can- 
not be blind to this influence ; and it is gradually 
transforming their ideals and ambition. 

Connected with these more subtle western civil- 
izing agencies are found the material agencies which 
are the dread foes of caste exclusion. The chief 
among these is the railroad, the thirty thousand 
miles of which are so many tongues to proclaim 
the doom of past narrowness. The Brahman, with 
all his mean pride, cannot forego the wonderful con- 
veniences of the " iron road and the fire-carriage " ; 
but in order to avail himself of them, he must sit 
an hour at a time cheek by jowl with a low-caste — 



148 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

it may be a Pariah — fellow-passenger. The railroad 
gnaws at the vitals of caste life and convictions. 

Next to it come the schools. Millions of youth 
are trained in them daily to regard caste as an un- 
worthy classification. All sections are taught in 
the same classes; they play in the same playground. 
In both places the lower often excels the higher 
caste boy. The seeds of equality and a common 
regard are thus constantly sown among the youth 
of all sections of the land. If it astonished the re- 
cent educational (Moseley) Commission which went 
from England to the United States to study the 
educational conditions there, when it saw the chil- 
dren of the President of the country studying side 
by side with the children of day-labourers, so must 
it seem wonderful, and wonderfully good, to a stu- 
dent of social conditions in India, to behold the 
child of a Pariah and that of a Brahman preparing, 
side by side, in the schoolroom, for the responsibili- 
ties and the blessings of life. 

Many other agencies similar to the above are 
doing their benign levelling work. 

The government, however, is the great leveller. 
In all its gifts of offices, in all posts of honour and 
influence, it distributes its blessings with strict im- 



I 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 149 

partiality, so far as caste is concerned. It wisely 
ignores all social distinctions and depends upon 
qualifications of culture and character when it seeks 
men to conduct its affairs. This is something un- 
precedented in the land of Manu. That the out- 
cast should stand an equal chance with the high 
castes for positions of honour and emolument was 
unknown in this land of sharp distinctions. 

And even more fundamental than this is the 
blessing of equal personal and political rights. In 
ancient India, such an idea was never entertained. 
Before British rule entered the land it was never 
dreamed that priest, prince, and beggar — and that 
Brahman and Pariah — had equal rights before 
the law. To-day they all recognize the justice of 
this and expect it. 

Finally, the advent of Christianity, with power, 
into the land has brought a new death-knell to 
caste supremacy. We have seen that Indian Chris- 
tian converts abandon all other customs and super- 
stitions with greater facility than they do those of 
caste. Its roots have sunk deepest into the soil 
of their nature. But let it not be thought that 
they do not grow stronger against caste than they 
used to be. In the Indian Christian community 



I50 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

there is developing a most encouraging movement 
toward the complete eradication of caste sentiment 
and observance within the Church itself. They 
are more sensible than ever before of the gross 
inconsistency of a man's taking upon himself the 
sacred name of Christ and at the same time sub- 
mitting to the dominance of caste. Indian Chris- 
tian anti-caste organizations are now at work seek- 
ing to drive out of the Church of God in India this 
Antichrist, and to cultivate the true spirit and ameni- 
ties of Christian fellowship and fraternal communion. 

The spirit of Christ is abroad in the land in regen- 
erating and transforming power. His great message 
to the world was the common fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of man. And the Christian Church 
is growing increasingly true to the message of its 
Leader and Lord in this country. Men may not ac- 
cept the Christian call to believe and to be baptized ; 
but they cannot be blind and deaf to the work and call 
of the Spirit of Christ in these modern times of thrill- 
ing changes and opportunities. 

It is this Christian ideal which is running athwart 
the most ancient and cherished institutions and customs 
of India, and has precipitated a conflict such as the 
land has never before known. 



THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM 151 

But the end is not yet, and caste will not be hurled 
down from its high pedestal in a day. It is a mighty 
institution which has its root in deepest sentiments and 
is sustained by cherished antiquity and by the strongest 
passions and prejudices. These will not succumb in a 
brief generation. And even when Christianity shall 
have triumphed and shall have driven out its rival 
faith from the land, as we have every reason to believe 
that it will, let it not be supposed that the Christianity 
of the East will have the social complexion of that of 
the West. In the earliest days of Christianity, we are 
told by the great Apostle to the Gentiles that there 
were " heresies " in the Church. These were social 
heresies or class divisions. It was later in the West 
that " heresy " became an error of belief. The Indian 
Church will also have heresies of life rather than of 
thought. The caste spirit will not vanish entirely 
from India, even when it becomes Christ's land ; be- 
cause while India is always indulgent and tolerant 
concerning beliefs, she is particular about class dis- 
tinctions. And this, doubtless, will be the weakness 
of the Indian Church of the future. But she will 
have her strong points, also, and in these she will 
glory and through them glorify her exalted Lord. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE BHAGAVAD GITA THE HINDU BIBLE 

The Bhagavad Gita (translated " The Song of the 
Adorable One " and " The Divine Lay ") is rightly- 
regarded as the gem of all Hindu sacred literature. 
Hindus maintain (and few will question them) that 
in beauty of language and in elevation of thought 
it stands supreme among their Skastras, or sacred 
writings. 

Educated Hindus proudly claim for it superiority to 
all sacred books of other faiths. 

Of all ancient Brahmanical writings it is to-day the 
most cherished by the members of that faith. The 
ancient Rig Veda is at present only a book of anti- 
quarian interest. The Upanishads, which are the 
fountainhead of Hindu thought and philosophy, are 
only the text-books and treasure-houses of philoso- 
phers and metaphysicians. But the Divine Lay is 
extolled and used alike by men of western culture, by 
conservative pandits, and by the masses as their 
highest book of doctrine and their richest treasury of 

devotion. 

152 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 153 

Even many Hindus who have come under the fas- 
cination of the Christ, carry with them upon their 
journeyings the New Testament in one pocket 
and the Bhagavad Gita in the other, as the com- 
mon guide and inspiration of their quiet hours of 
meditation. 

It is thus universally recognized that there is no 
book which wields a larger influence than this in the 
religious life of the two hundred and thirty millions of 
Hindus to-day ; and there is none which is more worthy 
to be called the Hindu Bible. 

I 

In strange contrast with the bulky tomes of Brah- 
manism and of the great epic, Mahabharata (which, 
with its two hundred and forty thousand lines, is the 
longest epic ever written, being eight times as long as 
the Odyssey and the Iliad put together), the Bhagavad 
Gita contains only seven hundred slohams, and is not 
as long as the Gospel of St. Mark. 

The date of the origin of the Song is very much 
disputed. There are Hindu authorities who would 
carry it back to the fifth century b.c, the time which 
is assisrned for the first recension of the Mahabharata, 
of which the Bhagavad Gita is a very small part. But 



154 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

the highest authorities find conclusive proof that it 
originated about the second or third century of our 
era, and was then inserted as a part of an episode in 
the narrative of the great epic. 

The Mahabharata is a great poetic narrative of a 
conflict between the two branches of the Bharata 
family — the Pandavas and the Kauravas — for the 
petty kingdom of Hastinapura, near the modern city 
of Delhi. 

The two forces are already, in counter array, eager 
for the fray on the battle-field of Kuruchetra. The 
call to battle has already been blown upon the mirac- 
ulous conchs of the leaders of both sides, who 
are seated in their chariots drawn by white horses. 
Over each one waves his personal ensign. Arjuna, 
the noblest of the five brave Pandava leaders, is a 
man of heroic traits of character ; and yet within him 
breathes the tenderest sentiment of humanity. He 
pauses a moment ere he leads his mighty hosts against 
the enemy ; and, as he looks upon his own kith and 
kin in the opposing ranks, he is overcome by the stern 
voice of conscience blending with humanitarian im- 
pulses. Is it right, can it possibly be right, for him to 
go forth to destroy his own friends and relatives; 
shall he shed the blood of those who are nearest and 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 155 

dearest to him upon the earth ? This is the agonizing 
doubt which seizes upon him at this time. And in 
his distress he turns to his friend and relative, Krishna, 
who has declined to participate in the war, but who 
had volunteered to act as Arjuna's charioteer. And 
he says unto him: "Seeing these kinsmen, O Krishna, 
standing (here) desirous to engage in battle, my 
limbs droop down ; my mouth is quite dried up ; a 
tremor comes on my body ; and my hairs stand on 
end ; the Gandiva (bow) slips from my hand ; my skin 
burns intensely ; I am unable, too, to stand up ; my 
mind whirls round, as it were. Even those for whose 
sake we desire sovereignty, enjoyments, and pleas- 
ures, are standing here for battle, abandoning life 
and wealth — preceptors, fathers, sons as well, grand- 
fathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, 
brothers-in-law, as also other relatives. These I do 
not wish to kill, though they kill me, O destroyer of 
Madhu ! even for the sake of sovereignty over the 
three worlds, how much less than for this earth 
(alone) ? " 

Krishna replied, with a view to soothe Arjuna's per- 
turbed mind, and to urge him on to battle. 

It is this dialogue between the hero and the god 
which constitutes the Bhagavad Gita. And yet one 



156 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

can hardly call it a dialogue, since Krishna's remarks 
make up more than nine-tenths of the book. 

The dialogue is one of the favourite forms of 
Hindu literature. Most of the Puranas and the 
Tantras are cast in that form. 

It seems very strange that this book, which is the 
favourite exponent of a faith whose very essence is 
non-resistance, whose genius is to inculcate the pas- 
sive virtues, should have found its motive in the pur- 
pose of the god Krishna to overcome, in the warrior 
Arjuna, those worthy, humane sentiments of peace 
and kindness and that noble resolution to forego even 
the kingdom rather than to acquire it through the 
shedding of the blood of his relatives. How incon- 
gruous to build up the lofty structure of a faith upon 
so unethical, unsocial, and cruel a foundation ! 

II 

The Song evidently belongs to the tendensschrift 
school of literature. It is written with a definite aim 
and purpose. It is the highest exponent of Hindu 
Eclecticism. The three great schools of Brahmani- 
cal thought and philosophy — the Sankya, the Yoga, 
and the Vedanta — were founded more than twenty- 
five centuries ago and have wielded resistless power 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 157 

in the shaping of leHgious thought in India. And 
perhaps this power was never more manifest than at 
the present time. 

But these schools are, in their main issues, mutu- 
ally antagonistic. The Sankya philosophy is severely 
dualistic and even has little use, if indeed it has any 
place, for the Divine Being. On the other hand, the 
Vedanta is uncompromisingly monistic. Its panthe- 
ism is of the highest spiritualistic type and is radically 
opposed to the materialism of the Sankya school. In 
one school the Divine Being is nothing and material- 
ism has full sway ; while in the other Brahm is every- 
thing, and all that appears to men — the phenomenal 
— is false and illusive. 

Again, as to the method of redemption, the Yoga 
philosophy advocates renunciation, self-effacement, and 
all the forms of asceticism. On the other hand, 
the Sankya philosophy inculcates action as the em- 
bodiment of the duty of man, through which alone he 
can attain unto absorption. 

Even to the present time these different schools of 
thought not only prevail ; they have also begotten and 
are nourishing different schools of religious life and 
practice which present different ideals and enforce 
different methods. 



158 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

The Brahman author, or authors, of the Bhagavad 
Gita was inspired with the laudable ambition of har- 
monizing these conflicting teachings and of blending 
their peculiarities into one consistent whole, which 
would appeal to all the followers of the many-sided 
Brahmanical faith. This he accomplished with rare 
beauty of language, and with a success which has won 
admiration and acceptance by nearly all the people of 
India. And this is the more remarkable since the 
worship of Krishna is distinctly a part of the Vaishna- 
vite cult of Hinduism, and as such does not appeal to 
the Saivites, or the worshippers of Siva. 

But the author, naturally and inevitably, failed to 
produce a congruous scheme of saving truth and 
religious appeal. The result is that we see, on almost 
every page, contradictory teachings and conflicting 
methods of salvation. This, of course, is by no means 
fatal to it in the estimation of Hindus, with whom 
consistency has never been a foible, and in the eyes of 
whom two mutually contradictory teachings can rest 
peacefully side by side. 

Here we find dualism and monism locking hands 
together, and the three ways of liberation — that of 
ritual, of asceticism, and of knowledge — not only find 
full expression, but are also supplemented by the 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 159 

inculcation of faith and of the obligations of caste. To 
a Westerner, this jumbling together of such antagonis- 
tic ideas and methods would be as repulsive as it 
would be absurd. But the Oriental mind works on 
different lines from the Occidental, and is never 
hampered by logical inconsistency. 

The Song of the Adorable One is divided into three 
chapters, of six divisions each. 

The first extols the benefits of the Yoga method ; 
but it also adds that action should be supplemented to 
Yoga for the speediest attainment of beatification. 

In the second part, the pantheism of the Vedanta 
is inculcated, and Krishna identifies himself with the 
universal Spirit and claims adoration as such. 

In the third part, an effort is made to blend the 
Sankya and the Vedanta conceptions, an effort which 
largely permeates the whole book. That is, it claims 
that prakriti, or elemental nature, and the soul, or 
atma, find their source in Brahm ; and thus it prac- 
tically vitiates the fundamental teachings of both 
systems. At the same time, it also teaches the 
separate existence of individual souls, which is anti- 
Vedantic. 

As we study carefully the contents of this remark- 
able work, we are impressed equally with its excel- 



i6o INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

lences and defects, with its sublime teachings and 
absurd contentions. Generally speaking, it may be 
said to be characterized by notions which are, at 
the same time, supremely attractive to the East and 
unintelligible and repellent to the West. 

I. Considering first its teaching concerning God, 
we find emphasized that monistic teaching of Hindu 
Pantheism which has been the dominant note in the 
faith of India from the first. But it is not the strictly 
spiritual and the unequivocal Pantheism of Vedan- 
tism, which is purely idealistic and which bluntly 
denies the existence of everything but Brahm itself. 
It is rather a mixture of the dual and the non-dual 
teaching of the two dominant, contending philoso- 
phies of the land. Krishna tells us that he is not 
only the supreme Spirit, but also that the material uni- 
verse is a part of himself. " O Son of Pritha ! I am 
the Kratu, I am the Yagna, I am the Svadha, I am 
the product of the herbs, I am the sacred verse. I 
too am the sacrificial butter, I the fire, I the offering. 
I am the father of this universe, the mother, the 
creator, the grandsire, the thing to be known, the 
means of sanctification, . . . the source and that in 
which it merges, the support, the receptacle, and the 
inexhaustible seed. . . . All entities which are of 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE i6i 

the quality of goodness, and those which are of the 
quaUty of passion and of darkness, know that they 
are, indeed, all from me ; I am not in them, but 
they are in me. The whole universe, deluded by 
these three states of mind, develops from the quali- 
ties, does not know me who am beyond them and 
inexhaustible ; for this delusion of mine, ... is divine 
and difficult to transcend." 

" There is nothing else higher than myself ; all 
this is woven upon me like numbers of pearls upon 
a thread. I am the taste in water, I am the light in 
the sun and the moon." ^ 

These and many other similar expressions represent 
an evident effort to graft the materialistic conceptions 
of the Sankya upon the Vedanta, which is in nothing 
more emphatic than in denying the existence of all 
that is phenomenal and material. 

Krishna gave to Arjuna, at the latter's request, a 
vision of his true Self separate from, and infinitely 
higher than, the humble and illusive garb of his 
incarnation. And it was to him "as if in the heavens 
the lustre of a thousand suns burst forth all at once." 

1 The translation which I follow here is that of Mr. Telang, in " The 
Sacred Books of the East," which is, on the whole, both exact and more 
intelligible than most other translations. 

M 



i62 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

And what a vision ! Gazing upon it, Arjuna exclaims, 
" O God ! I see within your body the gods, as 
also all the groups of various being; and the lord 
Brahm seated on his lotus seat, and all the sages 
and celestial snakes. I see you, who are of count- 
less forms, possessed of many arms, stomachs, mouths, 
and eyes on all sides. And, O Lord of the Universe, 
O you of all forms! I do not see your end, middle, 
or beginning. ... I believe you to be the eternal 
being. I see you void of beginning, middle, or end — 
of infinite power, of unnumbered arms, and having 
the sun and the moon for eyes, and having a mouth 
like a blazing fire and heating the universe with your 
radiance. For this space between heaven and earth 
and all the quarters are pervaded by you alone. 
Looking at this wonderful and terrible form of yours, 
O high-souled one ! the three worlds are affrighted. 
For here these groups of gods are entering into 
you. . . . Our principal warriors, also, are rapidly 
entering your mouths, fearful and horrific by reason 
of your jaws. And some with their heads smashed 
are seen stuck in the spaces between the teeth. As 
the many rapid currents of a river's waters run 
toward the sea alone, so do the heroes of this human 
world enter your mouths blazing all around. As 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 163 

butterflies, with increased velocity, enter a blazing 
fire to their destruction, so too do these people enter 
your mouths with increased velocity, only to their 
destruction. Swallowing all these people, you are 
licking them over and over again from all sides 
with your blazing mouths ! " 

Here we verily have a fine combination of the 
sublime and the ridiculous ! The Apostle of Jesus 
was given to witness a vision of heavenly things such 
as could not be uttered. This disciple of Krishna 
does not hesitate to paint in such glowing terms a 
vision of the divine, that, to all but a Hindu, the 
picture seems not only incongruous but highly absurd 
and disgusting. One can hardly imagine that any 
mortal, to whom a vision of the divine being had 
been granted, could fail so utterly to furnish us with 
an edifying description of the same. 

In this Song, Krishna claims to be, at the same time, 
absolute Deity and the supreme incarnation. In 
nothing do the East and the West differ more radi- 
cally than in their teaching concerning incarnation or 
" descent." In Christianity, God only once became 
incarnate ; and in that Incarnation every believing 
soul has found its needs fully satisfied. Never, in all 
these two thousand years, did our Lord Christ satisfy 



1 64 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

more completely the human soul and bring rest to 
more human hearts than at the present time. 

To the Christian, Jesus represents the ultimate 
of God's earthly manifestation, as He does the com- 
plete realization of human salvation. 

But in Hinduism, incarnation is presented as a 
continuous passion of the Deity. The absolute 
Spirit forever amuses itself with the "sacred sport" 
of ever changing emanations and manifestations. 
Myriads of " descents " are recorded in their sacred 
books, of all degrees and forms of grotesqueness, 
and not a few of unblushing vileness. It is an 
interesting fact that the same Krishna who poses, 
and by millions of Hindus is accepted, as the Su- 
preme Deity, is nevertheless represented in the 
most popular books of Hinduism to-day — the Pu- 
ranas, which are known in their legends to all 
Hindus and which wield a supreme influence over 
them in their life — as a very different being. In 
these books the story of Krishna is one of fetid, 
unblushing immorality and voluptuousness. The 
publishing of these narratives in the English lan- 
guage in a western land at the present time would 
be considered a crime punishable with imprison- 
ment. And thus this Hindu god, who is the most 



i] 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 165 

popular in India, and who appeals most to the im- 
agination of the people, led a life upon earth whose 
record is a story of immorality which brings a crim- 
son blush to the pure. 

But, to return to the Hindu conception of incar- 
nation, it must be remembered that it is unique in 
this particular; viz. that it regards the Deity as 
continually returning to the world to visit and to 
help human beings. In the Gita, Krishna re- 
marks : — 

" Whensoever, O Descendant of Bharata ! piety 
languishes and impiety is in the ascendant, I create 
myself. I am born, age after age, for the protection 
of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and 
the establishment of piety." 

The inadequacy of any one incarnation is here 
proclaimed, and the idea of constant communication 
with and impartation of himself to humanity through 
repeated descents is here inculcated. And it is a 
fundamental conception of Hinduism — a conception 
which differentiates it essentially from the Christian 
religion. 

From this remark of Krishna, who speaks here 
as the Supreme Being, one would suppose that 
Hindu incarnations have been, and still are, defi- 



i66 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

nitely intended to enhance human piety upon earth, 
and have been such as to accomplish this purpose. 
As a matter of fact, the historic or legendary incar- 
nations of India, as they are now recorded in their 
sacred books, have practically no ethical or spiritual 
content. I defy any Hindu to take the narratives 
of these descents, as found in the Puranas and 
other books, and show from them that there was 
anything more than physical and social relief to 
men intended by them or accomplished through 
them. I have yet to find, in those narratives, the 
conception of human sin and moral depravity and 
of the purpose of the incarnation to break the 
fetters of sin and to bring spiritual light and moral 
beauty to those among whom it manifested itself. 
The gulf which thus stands between the Hindu 
ideal of incarnation and the real incarnations which 
are recorded in Hindu literature, including that of 
Krishna himself, is wide and impassable. One has 
well said that the incarnation of Krishna is an 
incarnation of lust, and the record of his i6,ioo 
wives and 180,000 sons is but a suggestion of the 
correctness of this estimate. Even the incarnation 
of Buddha, which, doubtless, is the highest and best 
among those incorporated into the Hindu Pantheon, 



THE BHAGAVAD GIT A — THE HINDU BIBLE 167 

is expressly stated by Hindu authorities to be for 
the purpose of deceiving and destroying the people. 

When one begins to compare the picture of the 
Christian Incarnation with that of any and of all 
those that occupy the Hindu mind, and fill many 
volumes of Hindu literature, we pass from noon- 
day light into Egyptian darkness. 

2. The doctrine of atma, or the human self, or 
soul, is more in accordance with the Sankya than 
the Vedantic school. The individual soul is repre- 
sented, not as a part of the Supreme Soul, which 
is the distinct doctrine of the Adwaitha philosophy, 
but as a separate entity which is immutable and 
eternal. Listen to Krishna's argument to Arjuna, 
in order to urge him into battle and to shed the 
blood of his friends : " Learned men grieve not 
for the living nor the dead. Never did I not exist, 
nor you, nor these rulers of men ; nor will any of 
us ever hereafter cease to be. As in this body, 
infancy and youth and old age come . to the em- 
bodied self, so does the acquisition of another body; 
a sensible man is not deceived about that. . . . 
There is no existence for that which is unreal ; 
there is no non-existence for that which is real. . . . 
These bodies, appertaining to the embodied self 



1 68 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

which is eternal, indestructible, and indefinable, are 
said to be perishable ; therefore do engage in battle, 
O descendant of Bharata! He who thinks it to be 
the killer and he who thinks it to be killed, both 
know nothing. It kills not, is not killed. It is not 
born, nor does it ever die, nor, having existed, 
does it exist no more. Unborn, everlasting, un- 
changeable, and primeval, it is not killed when the 
body is killed. ... But even if you think that it 
is constantly born, and constantly dies, still, O you 
mighty man of arms ! you ought not to grieve thus. 
For to one that is born, death is certain; and to 
one that dies, birth is certain." 

There is a great deal more in this line of the 
indestructibility of the soul; but nothing is said of 
the Vedantic idea that the soul has no real, sepa- 
rate existence, and that even this illusory existence, 
in human conditions, will terminate when the self 
shall be recognized to be, as it really is, an un- 
severed and inseparable part of the Supreme Soul. 

The eternal existence of the soul is posited by every 
school of Hindu thought. In the Sankya philos- 
ophy, the human self, as we have seen, is a separate, 
uncreated entity ; and the teaching of the Divine Lay 
concerning it is in harmony with this. And it must 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 169 

be confessed that in many respects this doctrine is in- 
ferior to the Vedantic, which emphasizes the spiritual 
character, and the divine origin and destiny, of the 
soul. 

3. The doctrine of Liberation, or of Redemption, 
as found in the Bhagavad Gita, is a strange combina- 
tion of all the ways which Brahmanism has inculcated 
through its many schools, with other ways here added. 
" In every way men follow in my path," declared 
Krishna. In the pursuance of any religious practices 
whatever, men were assured that they would be accept- 
able if they were only Krishna-olaters. 

(i) But the highest path which leads unto God 
is the path of knowledge {Gnana). " Sacrifices of 
various sorts are laid down in the Vedas. Know 
them all to be produced from action, and knowing this 
you will be released from the fetters of this world. 
The sacrifice of knowledge is superior to the sacrifice 
of wealth, for action is wholly and entirely compre- 
hended in knowledge. . . . Even if you are the most 
sinful of all sinful men, you will cross over all tres- 
passes by means of the boat of knowledge alone. As 
a fire well kindled, O Arjuna! reduces fuel to ashes, 
so the fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes. 
For there is in this world no means of sanctification 



I70 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

like knowledge, and that one perfected by devotion 
finds within one's self in time. He who has faith, 
whose senses are restrained, and who is assiduous, 
obtains knowledge. Obtaining knowledge he acquires, 
without delay, the highest tranquillity. . . . Therefore, 
O descendant of Bharata! destroy with the sword of 
knowledge these misgivings of yours which fill your 
mind, and which are produced from ignorance." " He 
who is possessed of knowledge, who is always devoted, 
and whose worship is addressed to one only, is 
esteemed highest. For to the man of knowledge I 
am dear above all things, and he is dear to me. All 
these are noble, but the man possessed of knowledge 
is deemed by me to be my own self." 

From time immemorial Indian sages have looked 
upon God as the Supreme Intelligence ; He is the 
absolute Wisdom, and to know Him or it, and to know 
that "I am it" {Tat twam asi), this is the highest wis- 
dom {Brahma Gna7za), and it gives immediate entrance 
into the heaven of beatification or of absorption. And 
the only sin which such a man, and which this system 
of thought, recognizes is the sin of ignorance {Avidia)-, 
that is, the folly, or stupidity, of thinking that one's 
soul is separate from the divine Soul. To know, under 
these mundane conditions of delusion {Maya), and 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 171 

while under the tyranny of passion and of action 
[Karma), that I am, after all, identical with the divine 
Spirit, and that the thought of a separate existence is 
a snare and a bondage, — this is the immediate shat- 
tering of my earthly bondage and the full entrance of 
my soul (like a drop of water to its mother ocean) into 
the eternal peace and tranquillity (Sayutcka) of the 
godhead — a state of unconscious calm which shall 
never after be disturbed. 

Thus the highest way of salvation, as taught by 
Hindus of all classes, is the way of knowledge. It is 
the highest step in the progress of human redemption. 
All other ways of salvation are but preliminary, or 
stepping-stones, to this. There is no return to the 
bondage of this world of Him who has crossed the 
river of death "in the boat of knowledge." All others 
must again return and further, by new births, the 
cause of the soul's emancipation. 

(2) The second path of liberation here inculcated is 
that of self-restraint, of asceticism. From time imme- 
morial the ascetic has been India's ideal of a man of 
piety. He is a man who has turned his back upon 
the pleasures of the world, even its harmless amuse- 
ments and physical enjoyments, and has given himself 
to stern rigid self-denial. By thus denying himself 



172 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

every pleasure that body can bring and every satisfac- 
tion that human society can furnish ; yea, more, by a 
renunciation of everything worldly to the extent of 
supreme physical pain and social deprivation, he sepa- 
rates and weans himself from all that is temporal, that 
he may pass on in sadness up the pathway of redemp- 
tion. This is the way of Yoga; and the Yogi to- 
day finds highest admiration in India as its ideal 
of life. 

In the Divine Lay also this pathway of Yoga finds 
emphasis and exaltation. 

"The devotee whose self is contented with know- 
ledge and experience, who is unmoved, who has 
restrained his senses, and to whom a sod, a stone, and 
gold are alike, is said to be devoted. ... A devotee 
should constantly devote himself to abstraction, 
remaining in a secret place, alone, with his mind and 
self restrained, without expectations and without be- 
longings. Fixing his seat firmly in a clean place, not 
too high nor too low, and covered over with a sheet 
of cloth, a deerskin, and kusa grass — and there 
seated on that seat, fixing his mind exclusively on 
one point with the working of the mind and sense 
restrained, he should practise devotion for the purity of 
self. . . . Thus constantly devoting himself to abstrac- 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 173 

tion, a devotee whose mind is restrained attains that 
tranquillity which culminates in final emancipation 
and assimilation with me. . . . The self-restrained, 
embodied self lies at ease within the city of nine 
portals, renouncing all actions by the mind, not doing 
or causing anything to be done." 

This path of abstraction and asceticism leaves 
the soul to theosophic knowledge, which is con- 
summated in the supreme bliss of assimilation with 
the Divine. 

So enamoured has India been of this method of life 
throughout the centuries that Yoga has been reduced 
to a science, and has been elaborated to a degree 
which is ridiculous and almost idiotic. Listen, for in- 
stance, to Krishna's instructions where he speaks of 
the ascetic as " holding his body, head, and neck even 
and unmoved, remaining steady, looking at the tip of 
his own nose," etc. These ridiculous posturings and 
idiotic attitudes cannot, as has been well said by 
Barth, but lead to idiocy or to a loss of all mental 
aptitude. 

The ultimate aim of Yoga is to reduce the soul 
to tranquillity and quiescence, by abstracting the 
mind from all things earthly, and thus leading to 
cessation from action ; for action is said to lead to 



174 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

new fruit, which must be eaten by the soul; and 
for this purpose new births are necessary, which 
delay final absorption in the deity. 

The spirit of Hinduism is thus evident in its ex- 
altation of this method of life. It has made the 
path of abstraction and the elimination of every 
thought, emotion, and ambition, its ideal. In other 
words, man, by self -repression and the effacement of 
every faculty of mind and body, is to attain unto 
final beatification or emancipation. This is an end 
in itself, according to the Hindu plan of life. 

In Christianity, on the other hand, self-realization 
and not self-effacement must be the consummation 
of life. The way of the Cross, that is, the path of 
self-denial, is indeed most rigidly enjoined ; but it is 
the denial of the lower self, the meanest passions of 
the soul, in order that the highest faculties may 
find complete realization. Thus, in Christianity, 
also, asceticism has a place of value ; but it is as a 
means to a higher end, and that is, perfect growth 
and development of the man unto the "measure of 
the stature of the fulness of Christ." 

(3) It also possesses the distinction of emphasiz- 
ing works or action as necessary to salvation. In- 
deed, the Bhagavad Gita is unique among the books 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 175 

of India in teaching that action is superior to re- 
nunciation. 

Sri Krishna says : " Renunciation and pursuit of 
action are both instruments of happiness. But of 
the two, pursuit of action is superior to renunciation 
of action." 

This is, indeed, strange teaching in the realm of 
Hindu Hterature, where action is universally taught 
to be both in itself an evil and to be the cause of 
sin. Krishna, by some magic of his own power, 
here reverses the ordinary Hindu teaching. " He 
who has controlled his senses and who identifies 
his self with every being, is not tainted, though he 
performs actions." " He who, casting off all attach- 
ment, performs actions, dedicating them to Brahm, 
is not tainted by sin, as the lotus leaf is not tainted 
by water." Indeed, we are told that some " perform 
actions for attaining purity of self." Thus we see 
inculcated the peculiarly un-Hindu doctrine that he 
who works for God is for that reason absolved from 
the fruit of his action ; yea, more, by his very acts 
attains unto purity, and approaches the consumma- 
tion of absorption. Still more, the very motive of 
Krishna, in this Divine Song, is to stir up the war- 
like courage of Arjuna and to lead him into the 



176 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

bloody activities of war. " Therefore do you, too, 
perform actions, as was done by men of olden times." 

But action, in order that it may be effective, must 
be according to prescribed rules. Any work which 
is inculcated in the sacred books is both sacred and 
useful in the scheme of redemption. And among 
these prescribed works, few are more useful than 
the performance of sacrifice. Men " have their sins 
destroyed by sacrifice. Those who eat the nectar- 
like leavings of the sacrifice prepare for the eternal 
Brahm. This world is not for those who perform 
no sacrifice. Thus sacrifices of various sorts are 
laid down in the Vedas. Know them all produced 
from action, and knowing this you will be released 
from the fetters of this world." 

Idolatry, also, is a part of this sacred duty. " De- 
siring the success of action, men in this world wor- 
ship the divinities, for in this world of the mortals, 
the success produced by action is soon obtained." 
" Those who worship the divinities go to the divini- 
ties, and my worshippers, too, go to me." " Even 
those, O Son of Kunti, who being devotees of other 
divinities worship with faith, worship me only, but 
irregularly. For I am the enjoyer as well as Lord 
of all sacrifices. But they know me not truly, there- 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 177 

fore do they fall," i.e. they return to the world of 
mortals. This teaching may be called polytheism 
rather than idolatry. And yet at the time this book 
was written, polytheism had already degenerated into 
idolatry. 

The most definite and multitudinous courses of 
action are those enforced by the caste system. And 
these also are emphasized in this song. Krishna here 
informs us that he is the author of the caste system. 
" The four-fold division of castes was created by me 
according to the apportionment of qualities and 
duties." Elsewhere, in Hindu writings, we are 
abundantly informed that Brahm created these four 
divisions of men from his head, his shoulders, his 
loins, and his feet, respectively.^ 

He only lives well and works worthily who lives 
in strict accordance with caste rules, and who works 
in obedience to the dictates of caste tyranny. We 
are here informed that "one's own duty, though 
defective, is better than another's duty well per- 
formed. Death in performing one's own duty is 
preferable; the performance of the duty of others is 
dangerous." Here, of course, " one's own duty " 
is the duty prescribed to a man by the Hindu caste 

^ See Chapters IV and V, on Caste. 



178 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

system. " The duties of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and 
Vaisyas, and of Sudras, too, O terror of your foes, 
are distinguished according to the qualities born of 
nature. Tranquillity, restraint of the sense, pen- 
ance, purity, forgiveness, straightforwardness, also 
knowledge, experience, and belief in the future world, 
this is the natural duty of the Brahmans. Valour, 
glory, courage, dexterity, not slinking away from 
battle, gifts, exercise of lordly power, this is the 
natural duty of Kshatriyas. Agriculture, tending 
cattle, trade, this is the natural duty of Vaisyas. 
And the natural duty of Sudras, too, consists in 
service. Every man intent on his own respective 
duties obtains perfection." And, again, " One's duty, 
though defective, is better than another's duty well 
performed. Performing the duty prescribed by 
nature one does not incur sin. One should not 
abandon a natural duty though tainted with evil." 

Thus the most stupendous system of social and 
religious evil that the world has ever known — the 
Hindu caste system — is here boldly taught and 
inculcated as the most sacred duty of life. One man 
is born for pious leadership, another born to fight, 
another born for menial service; and woe be to any 
one of them who abandons this so-called " natural 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 179 

duty " and strives for a betterment or a change of life ! 
This is the divinely inculcated system of bondage 
which has enthralled India for twenty-five centuries. 

But it is gratifying to know that, though taught 
and inculcated in this highest book of their faith, 
Hindus are beginning to denounce the whole system. 
Both a social and a religious consciousness are be- 
ginning to rebel against its very existence. 

But we pass from this lowest aspect of "action" 
to the highest when we remark that all acts should, 
according to Krishna, be free from attachment. No 
duty is more frequently enforced in the Bhagavad Gita 
than that of detachment in religious activity; nor is 
there any higher than this within the whole compass 
of this Song. It is the duty of man to work out right- 
eousness and to exercise virtue without regard to the 
results or the fruits of his action. It is the high- 
water mark of the teaching of the book. 

" Your business is with action alone ; not by any 
means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be 
your motive to action." " Wretched are those whose 
motive to action is the fruit of action." Therefore, 
perform all action, which must be performed, with- 
out attachment. For a man, performing action with- 
out attachment, attains the Supreme. "Forsaking all 



i8o INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

attachment to the fruit of action, always contented, 
dependent on none, he does nothing at all, though he 
engages in action. Devoid of expectations, restraining 
the mind and the self, and casting off all belongings, 
he incurs no sin." 

We must not, however, give to this detachment a 
Christian value. For it is a part of Hindu thought 
to condemn every emotion and sentiment, however 
lofty as an asset of life. It regards every desire, how- 
ever noble in itself, and every sentiment, however ex- 
alted, as essentially evil ; for it is a momentary barrier 
to that equilibrium and quiescence of soul which the 
Hindu has always maintained to be the highest culti- 
vation of the self. Therefore, action, in order to be 
of any permanent value, must be severed from every 
passion, desire, or expectation. And thus the Hindu 
does not here seek so much the existence of pure 
altruism as he does the absence of desire, which means 
soul unrest and the removal of one of the barriers to 
soul emancipation. It is, he says, when love and every 
other passion cools off into a quiet intellectual calm, 
and the soul is animated, not by sentiment, but by 
clear vision, that Sayutcha, or absorption into the 
Brahm, is attained. 

If, then, detachment is a keyword to Higher 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE i8i 

Hinduism and man is forbidden to seek after any 
good, even the highest, in connection with his rehgious 
activities, what then can be an adequate motive to a 
rehgious life of good works ? 

Here is introduced another keyword of this Eclec- 
ticism — the word Bhakti. 

The doctrine of Bhakti finds a supreme place in 
the Divine Song. Bhakti means devotion or love to 
Krishna himself. Perhaps the Christian word "Faith" 
best expresses the full meaning of the word Bhakti. 
Krishna says, in substance. Have no attachment to 
the results of your acts; but be attached to me who 
am the supreme God, and live and act according to 
the noble impulse of that attachment. 

" Among all devotees, he who being full of faith 
worships me, with his inmost self intent on me, is 
esteemed by me to be the most devoted." " Even 
if a very ill-conducted man worships me, not worship- 
ping any one else, he must certainly be deemed to be 
good, for he has well resolved." " Place your mind 
on me, become my devotee, my worshipper; reverence 
me, and thus making me your highest goal, and 
devoting yourself to abstraction, you will certainly 
come to me." " On me place your mind, become my 
devotee, sacrifice to me, reverence me, you will cer- 



IS2 



INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 



tainly come to me. I declare to you truly, you are 
dear to me. I will release you from all sins. Be not 
grieved." " No one amongst men is superior to him 
in doing what is dear to me." 

It is probable that the Bhagavad Gita was the first 
to introduce this doctrine of faith. It is, of course, a 
doctrine possible only in connection with a personal 
God, and was doubtless introduced through the new 
cult of Krishna-olatry. It is foreign to Vedantism, 
whose God is the Impersonal and the Ineffable One; 
foreign also to the Sankya school, where God is 
neither known nor needed. It is essentially a new 
teaching, and is a peculiar feature of the worship of 
the incarnations of Vishnu. 

But, introduced by this Song of the Adorable One, 
it has been incorporated into the Hindu religion, and 
figures now as one of the most powerful motives of 
that faith. And this new doctrine brings the Hindu 
religion into warmer relationship to Christianity than 
at any other point. Sir Monier Williams truly claims 
that Hinduism, in no other teaching, so closely 
approaches Christianity as in the doctrine of faith. 

But, like all other teachings of Hinduism, this 
doctrine also has been considerably distorted in the 
process of appropriation ; so that " faith " in the wor- 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 183 

ship of Vishnu's incarnations, to-day, is more potential 
as an act than is " faith " in Christianity. For, in 
Hinduism, it matters not on what god or ritual the 
B/iaktkan places his faith, it has power to redeem him 
from all troubles. 

It should be remembered that Bhakti is perhaps the 
most distinctive and mighty influence in Vaishnavism, 
if not in all Hinduism, at the present time. 

(4) Little is said in Hinduism with a view to 
inculcate and to reveal the efficiency of altruism, 
or the love of man for man. In the Bhagavad Gita 
hardly any reference is made to this which is so 
dominant a note in the Christian faith. Krishna 
does remark that one should have " regard also to 
keeping people to their duties," in performing action. 
" Whatever a great man does, that other men also 
do ; . . . wise men should not shake the convictions 
of the ignorant who are attached to action, but act- 
ing with devotion should make them apply them- 
selves to all action." " He who identifies himself 
with every being is not tainted, though he performs 
actions." " The sages who are intent on the wel- 
fare of all the beinors obtain the Brahmic bliss." 

O 

This certainly is neither very clear, nor at all 
adequate, as the inculcation of the most fundamental 



i84 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of all duties, the love of our fellow-men and the sac- 
rifice of self in the interest of common humanity. 
The Vedantin claims that the unity of all being, 
as taught by him, is a strong injunction upon him 
to love all the parts of that unity. But the Bhaga- 
vad Gita does not teach clearly even this Vedantic 
doctrine. Selfishness is too much stamped upon 
the Hindu faith. It is too exclusively an indi- 
vidualistic religion. It is every one for himself in 
the great struggle of man for redemption. It pre- 
eminently tends to cultivate in man both pride in 
his own achievement and an exclusively selfish devo- 
tion to the consummation of his own redemption. 

4. In the Bhagavad Gita little is said of the charac- 
ter of the salvation which is to be achieved by the 
devotee of Krishna. Indeed, the nature of this con- 
summation is left very much in mystery. We are 
told that Krishna's worshipper will come to him. 
" He who, with the highest devotion to me, will 
proclaim this supreme mystery among my devotees 
will come to me freed from all doubts." Again we 
are taught that such a devotee, " understanding me, 
truly enters into my essence." This carries the 
definite and universal thought of Hinduism, that 
man will be absorbed in the Deity. In another 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 185 

place we are told that the worshipper " who is 
purified by the penance of knowledge has come into 
my essence." 

This is the eschatology of all Hindu Shastras. 
The peculiar teaching of the Bhagavad Gita con- 
cerning action and its emphasis upon a strenuous 
life in this world would have led us to expect the 
teaching of a future of some kind of activity. Instead 
of that, it falls back upon the old and hackneyed 
pantheistic idea, that the human soul, being ulti- 
mately divested of its human bodies, both gross 
and fine, passes on in its nakedness into oneness 
with the Absolute, and thus loses all the faculties 
which, so far as we know, constitute its greatness, 
power, and glory. In this condition of absorption 
the human soul is not only deprived of its separate 
existence, but also of all self-knowledge, which is 
the true basis of personality. 

As to the process of this salvation we are here 
taught, as in all Hindu writing, that it is attained 
through metempsychosis, or reincarnation. The hu- 
man soul, like the divine, in Brahmanism, passes 
through many incarnations (some writers say 
8,400,000) before it receives the crown of perfection, 
or of absorption. Krishna says : " As a man, cast- 



i86 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

ing off old clothes, puts on others and new ones, so 
the embodied self, casting off old bodies, goes to 
others and new ones." " I have passed through 
many births, O Arjuna, and you, also," says Krishna ; 
" I know them all, but you, O terror of your foes ! do 
not know them." 

This devious and tedious path of reincarnation is 
the one over which every soul must pass. And 
between every incarnation and that which follows, 
the soul, clothed upon with a subtle body, passes 
through many heavens and hells in order to eat 
the fruits of its past actions. And there is a rem- 
nant of these fruits left which necessitates the return 
to a new body and a new human existence. 

These upper and nether regions through which 
the soul passes and settles its accounts with the 
past, are not in any sense permanent. Concerning 
this, the Bhagavad Gita says that men, " reaching 
the holy world of the Lord of Gods, they enjoy in 
the celestial regions the celestial pleasures of the 
gods. And having enjoyed that great heavenly 
world, they enter the mortal world when their merit 
is exhausted." After, perhaps, millions of these hu- 
man incarnations (and, indeed, the incarnation may 
be of lower animal and of vegetable), the self will 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 187 

gradually be perfected, they say, and will pass on 
into the calm essence of the supreme Soul, as a 
drop of water descends in rain and blends again 
with the ocean. I see absolutely no reason why 
this interminable process of metempsychosis should 
lead to the perfection of the soul rather than to its 
complete demoralization. Indeed, there is nothing 
ethical at all in the character of these reincarnations, 
so far as they are described by Hindu writers. 

HI 

This, then, is the " Divine Lay " of the Hindu 
religion, the book most cherished and most highly 
extolled by more than two hundred and thirty million 
Hindus. 

We are, first of all, impressed by the many con- 
tradictions which disfigure the book. Hardly a 
page is free from conflicting doctrines and methods 
of life. It could not be otherwise in any effort to 
harmonize the mutually contradictory teachings of 
the conflicting schools of religious thought and prac- 
tice in this complicated faith. 

On the other hand, we see in this Song an honest 
and an able attempt to bring the many tenets of 
that faith into a consistent whole. And we cannot 



i88 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

help feeling that, while the view of God and man 
here presented, and the ways of salvation here enun- 
ciated, are not satisfactory, yet we find scattered 
through its pages gems of thought and beauties of 
religious conceptions and instruction which are 
beyond cavil, and which to-day seem to satisfy many 
millions of our fellow-men. 

But, at the close of a careful perusal of the book, 
one feels that it is radically unsatisfying. 

In the first place, it is wanting in any power for 
life. In order to feel this, one has only to compare it, 
for a moment, with the Gospels of Christianity. We 
find here philosophical disquisitions on the Divine 
Being which few men can understand and none can 
hope to harmonize. In the Gospels, on the other 
hand, we see presented a scheme of life which, at the 
same time, satisfies the highest philosophy and is per- 
fectly intelligible to the most simple-minded. Here a 
bewildering number of mutually contradictory ways of 
life are urged upon us, not one of which can appeal in 
fulness and power to the common man. There do we 
find one clear way of salvation — the way of faith in 
Christ ; and in order to walk in that way the power of 
the Divine Spirit is promised to every one, even to 
the humblest soul and to the greatest sinner, that he 



THE BHAGAVAD GITA — THE HINDU BIBLE 189 

might accept the Christ and live in and through Him 
a holy and a righteous life. 

Above all, we have here represented an incarnation 
the records of whose doings, in the sacred writings of 
the Hindus, shock us by their immorality and disgust 
us by their coarseness. And yet he arrogates to him- 
self the nature and the functions, as he makes upon us 
the demands, of the supreme Deity. There, on the 
other hand, we witness the spectacle of the Christ 
who so lived the divine life, and whose immaculate 
holiness is so overwhelming, that His claim to be one 
with the Godhead brings no shock or sense of incon- 
gruity to any one to-day. He has so impressed men 
of all generations that untold millions, in all lands, 
have felt no hesitation in believing Him when He 
says, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 
Here do we indeed find the supreme contrast between 
the manual of Hindu faith and the Gospels of Christi- 
anity ; and it is a contrast at the most vital point of 
religion. 



CHAPTER VII 

POPULAR HINDUISM 

In the last chapter we dwelt upon what may be 
called the Higher Hinduism — that system of thought 
and religious exercise which engages the attention, 
attracts the thought, and invites the devotion of the 
thinking classes of the Hindu fold. The Bhagavad 
Gita is only one of many writings which seriously pre- 
sent to the thoughtful Hindu some of the higher con- 
ceptions and deepest yearnings of the soul. Of all 
the faiths of the " Far East " none dwells so much 
upon these profound religious realities, or engages in 
such lofty flights of spiritual aspiration, as does this 
religion of the Brahmans. And no one can study 
these products of the greatest minds and most sensi- 
tive religious souls of India without entertaining a 
great and growing admiration for them. 

But it is well to remember these are not all of 

Hindu literature ; nor do they represent the current 

thought or the general religious life of the people. 

190 




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■'I'i' *f/ ■• :. rfl. >■< •'ij''\)V 

■ r'-'.' ■■■■I. m 

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POPULAR HINDUISM 193 

They indeed reveal the highest and the best that 
has ever come to light in the thought and spiritual 
culture of this people. For that reason, the Bhagavad 
Gita is worthy of the name we gave it — the Hindu 
bible. 

In view of all these things, who would say that God 
did not visit this people, or left Himself without wit- 
ness among them ? While He was leading the He- 
brews in the time of Moses, He was also stirring this 
people through its old rishis, or sages. While He 
was rebuking the degenerate Jewish people through 
their later prophets. He was raising and inspiring the 
great prophet of India, the Buddha, to protest against 
a debased Brahmanism. 

But let it not be supposed that this literature of 
" Higher Hinduism " is, in any sense, popular in In- 
dia. Those religious books which engage the mind 
of the masses are of a very different class. They are 
the wild legends of the Puranas, and inane dialogues 
and lying incantations of the Tantras — two classes of 
works which are both the most popular and are lowest 
in the range of their ideas and most demoralizing in 
the cults which they present. 

These books were ostensibly written for the com- 
mon people and for women. And the common peo- 



194 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

pie delight in them and are intoxicated by their 
religious exaggerations and excesses. 

Thus the faith of the people, as a whole, is far 
removed, in its grovelling thought, its idolatrous 
practices, and its thousand-headed ritual, from the 
teaching of Higher Hinduism. 

Above all, we must remember that the Hinduism of 
to-day is not the Brahmanism of thirty centuries ago. 
It has been the passion of that faith, from the begin- 
ning, to absorb all cults and faiths that have come 
into contact with it. Hinduism is an amorphous 
thing; it has been compared to a many-coloured and 
many-fibred cloth, in which are mixed together Brah- 
manism, Buddhism, Demonolatry, and Christianity. 
And all these, utterly regardless of the many con- 
tradictions which they bring together, form modern 
Hinduism. 

This is true also of the gods of India. The earliest 
of the Vedic gods had elements of nobility in them. 
The most universally recognized of their divinities in 
primitive times, Varuna, is free from the vain passions 
and moral obliquities of more recent gods. Indeed, 
as one follows the course of time and the consequent 
multiplication of deities in India, one sees in their 
pantheon a steady deterioration of character, until we 



POPULAR HINDUISM 195 

come to the most popular of modern Hindu deities, 
Krishna and Kali, the one well-called "the incarna- 
tion of lust," and the other " the goddess of blood." 
One is the deification of human passion, while the 
other is an apotheosis of brute force. And yet the 
cults of those two deities have attained, at the present 
time, the maximum of popularity throughout the land. 

The same fact is manifest in connection with the 
customs of the people. In early Vedic times, hardly 
one of those institutions which now so disfigure this 
religion existed among the people. Idolatry, the 
caste system, and the many forms of degradation of 
women are of later growth. Never, in all the history 
of the country, did they exist and flourish as they do 
at the present time. 

Thus it will be seen that, while the religion of the 
Brahmans in its earliest, primitive stage was merely 
an ethnic faith and largely the echo of the spiritual 
yearning of the human soul, its development has 
neither added to its power nor broadened its horizon. 
On the contrary, it grows weaker and has, age after 
age, added superstition to superstition, until it has 
reached its maximum of error and of evil at the 
present time. 

It is wise neither to ignore nor to underestimate the 



196 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

best that is in a faith ; nor is it fair to shut one's eyes 
to its achievement as revealed in the life of the com- 
mon people. 

Indeed, the religious life of the masses is the truest 
index of the real value of a religion, if it has wrought 
upon them many centuries, as Hinduism has, in this 

land. 

I 

In the West the national evolutionist says to us, 
" Let the people of India alone, that they may evolve 
their own faith. It is not by cataclysmic change, but 
by growth, that they will ultimately find their true 
redemption." Others, who have listened perhaps to 
the pleasing words of a clever, yellow-robed Hindu 
Swami, ask the question, " Why should we spend our 
money in sending the Gospel to these wonderfully 
bright people of the East ; are they not able to take 
care of themselves ; and is not their faith adequate 
to their needs ? " 

To this we simply say : " Come with us to India and 
see for yourselves. Live, as some of us have, for a 
third of a century in this land, and see, hear, feel, and 
understand what this Hinduism is. And, having un- 
derstood the situation, ask yourselves whether this 
ancestral faith of India has in itself real saving power 



I 



POPULAR HINDUISM 197 

and redeeming efficacy for any one. I maintain that, 
to know Hinduism, is to feel a deep sympathy with the 
people who have inherited it as their faith, and to 
desire to bring to them the Gospel of life and of 
salvation in Christ Jesus. The people of India are, 1 
perhaps, the most religious upon earth. In this respect 
they are very unlike the Japanese and Chinese, who 
are worldly, prosaic, practical. Hindus are poetic, 
other-worldly, and spiritually minded. They have a 
keen instinct for things of the spirit. They are, also, 
very unlike the people of the West. Among West- 
erners, religion is largely an incident in life. It has 
for them a separate department, a small corner, in the 
life. In the East, on the other hand, religion enters 
into every detail of life. There is hardly a depart- 
ment or an interest in life which is not subsidized by 
faith and which has not to be conducted religiously. 

Moreover, the people of India thought out and elab- 
orated most profound systems of theosophic thought in 
the far, remote past. When our ancestors were in the 
depths of savagery, Indian sages were indulging in 
metaphysical disquisitions which are even to-day the 
admiration of western sages. And there were many 
among those ancient Hindu rishis whose self-propelled 
flight toward God and divine things, and whose spir- 



198 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

itual aspirations and yearnings were so beautiful that 
we can but speak with profound respect and entertain 
the highest admiration of them. Religion is not 
merely a philosophy, or even an aspiration; it is 
something vastly more than this. 

The Hindu Swami will visit the West and discourse 
sweetly, in persuasive English, upon Hindu philosophy. 
But he will not practise his religious rites or reveal his 
idolatrous habits and his bondage of caste to those 
western people who admire him. These things would 
at once create a revulsion of feeling against him and 
his philosophy. And yet these are much more an 
essential part of his faith than all his moral platitudes 
and eloquent disquisitions. 

And it should not be forgotten that this same Swami, 

in the very act of crossing the oceans to visit the West, 

violates one of the most prominent commands of his 

faith. 

II 

What, then, is Popular Hinduism? 

I shall endeavour to analyze it and present some of 
its outstanding features, such as are witnessed all over 
the land. 

I. That which obtrudes itself upon all sides and 
which is, perhaps, its most determining factor is its 



POPULAR HINDUISM 199 

caste system. In other lands, mean social distinctions 
obtain and divide the people. In India only, Caste is 
a religious institution, founded by the authority of 
Heaven, penetrating every department and entering 
into every detail of life, and enforced by strictly re- 
ligious penalties. One has well said that Hinduism 
and caste are convertible terms. 

2. Another outstanding feature of popular Hin- 
duism is its Polytheism. 

While pantheism is the essential philosophy of the 
land, — a pantheism which denies the existence of all 
beings and everything save Brahm (the Supreme Soul), 
— nevertheless this pantheism has, in the popular mind, 
degenerated into the greatest pantheon the world has 
ever known. Even ten centuries ago its gods were 
said to number three hundred and thirty miUions! 
And this army of deities has been multiplying ever 
since. Even twenty-five centuries ago, the fertile 
imagination of the Brahman had so peopled this world 
with gods and godlets of all grades that the stern and 
sensible mind of the great Buddha became disgusted 
with the whole pantheon ; and he established his new 
faith as a reaction from the old to the extent of ignor- 
ing any Divine Being. 

If, in these earlier days, such a man was unable to 



200 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

endure this manifestation of human folly, what can 
we not say in these days, when, in addition to the 
acknowledged host of well-known Hindu deities, 
every family has its god, and every hamlet its pro- 
tecting demons ; and when trees, rivers, mountains, 
and a thousand other objects represent to the popular 
mind separate godlets ? One can well say that India 
has gone mad in its passion for populating the world 
with gods. 

3. Moreover, this pantheon has been incarnated. 
It has descended into a wild and hideous idolatry. 
There is no other land on earth where idolatry is so 
rampant as it is in India. Images are found every- 
where. If the gods are numberless, how much more 
the idols which represent them, and which are found 
in every hamlet and house and upon roadsides ! 

In addition to those idols which are made for regu- 
lar and permanent worship, there are myriad others 
which are made of clay and other perishable sub- 
stances, to be used for the time only, and then to be 
thrown into the river or to be washed away by the 
rain. 

And what hideous objects these idols of India are ! 
The images of the gods of the ancient Greeks were 
beautiful, and one feels sometimes almost inclined to 



POPULAR HINDUISM 201 

excuse an image-worship where ignorance weds art 
to religion and combines beauty with devotion. 

But there is no such excuse for the idolatry of 
India. In all my travels through this great land I 
have hardly seen an image, or an idol, which is what 
may be called an artistically beautiful object. On 
the other hand, many of them are peculiarly gross 
and revolting in appearance. The most universally 
worshipped god in all India is Ganesh. His idols 
are found all over the land, not only in temples and 
shrines, but on roadsides, and in all places where 
people assemble. And this Ganesh, the son of Siva, 
is represented by the grossest and most hideous idol. 
This "pot-bellied god " has his body crowned with an 
elephant head ! 

Of course, Hindu taste cannot be judged by western 
standards. One cannot fail to recognize this fact in 
trying to judge types of human beauty in this land. 
But even Hindu types of beauty are not at all real- 
ized in their idols. It would often seem as if that 
which was most revolting in appearance is that which 
appeals most strongly to the Hindu, as an outward 
expression of the divine. In any case, it is true that 
the idolatry of India is farthest removed from the 
chaste, the beautiful, and the elevating. 



202 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

And this evil is intensified by the fact that all wor- 
shipped idols are bathed with oil, and therefore at- 
tract all the dust, dirt, and grime of the immediate 
vicinity. 

Educated Hindus, though they tell you that these 
idols are only for the ignorant masses, rarely decline 
to unite with their families in bringing their offerings 
to, and in worshipping, the same. 

Some will tell us that in idolatry people do not 
worship the idol itself, but the god who is supposed 
to reside within it. Even if this were true, one could 
not admire such a worship did he know the character 
of the god which is supposed to reside therein. But 
their statement regarding this is not true. I have 
personally inquired of many of the common people 
who are idolaters, and I have never yet found a man 
whose mind, in worship, passes beyond the idol itself. 
I admit that the educated mind may leap in thought 
behind the image ; but the masses of the people do 
not. It is, at best, a debasing worship, and drags 
the people down to the level of the hideous objects 
before which they prostrate themselves. 

A well-known Hindu writer said recently, in the 
Christian College Magazine : — 

" I do urge most emphatically that, whatever may 




Two Hindu Idols, Souiii India 



POPULAR HINDUISM 205 

have been the original intention, and whatever may 
be the esoteric meaning, the milHons that perform 
idolatrous practice in this country see nothing sym- 
bolic behind the image and take the whole show 
quite literally. And can anything be more degrad- 
ing to an intelligent human being? We know that 
all religions are necessarily more or less anthro- 
pomorphic. But our popular Hinduism surpasses 
everything else in this respect, too. There is a fa- 
mous shrine in this Presidency where the deity's 
chota hazri [early meal] begins with bread and but- 
ter, and he goes on eating without respite till mid- 
night, when he appropriately takes a decoction of 
dried ginger to help his digestion before he retires 
to his bedroom with his consorts ; there is another 
famous shrine where a cigar is left in the bedroom 
every night for his godship to smoke ; in another 
shrine, under the management of a nominal ascetic, 
fetters are applied to the god's feet whenever the 
temple's exchequer runs low, to extort money offer- 
ings from the devotees and pilgrims ; in numerous 
other shrines the deity is taken out in procession 
and whipped publicly for having committed petty 
thefts; in one shrine the whole process of a high- 
way robbery is acted out in detail during the annual 



2o6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

festival; births, marriages, deaths, and similar occur- 
rences are, of course, as common and frequent in 
our temples as in our homes. Gentlemen, can any 
amount of esoteric whitewashing justify these dis- 
graceful and fairly incredible practices? Then there 
are the deva dasies, our 'vestal virgins,' of whom 
even small and poor temples have one or two to 
boast. They are the recognized prostitutes of the 
country, and many sociologists are of opinion that 
no ' civilized ' human society can completely get rid 
of such a class. Is that any reason why we should 
associate them with our religion and tempt the devil 
himself with their presence in our holiest places and 
shrines ? " 

4. Another marked feature of modern Hinduism 
is its devil-worship. This is peculiarly manifest in 
South India. In the Madras Presidency, whose 
fifty million population is mostly Dravidian, nine- 
tenths of the people follow the faith of their ances- 
tors, which is Demonolatry. 

When Brahmanism came to South India, many 
centuries ago, it found intrenched among the people, 
everywhere and universally, this ancient cult. The 
Brahmans, recognizing this, did what they have al- 
ways done ; they said to the people : " We have 



POPULAR HINDUISM 207 

not come to destroy your religion ; we will take 
your demons and demonesses, marry them to our 
gods, and give them shrines and worship in our tem- 
ples. Come with them and be a part of our reli- 
gion. We will give to you the privileges, and confer 
upon you the dignity and blessing, of our great reli- 
gion." The people were impressed by this offer, 
accepted the situation, and were absorbed, with their 
religion, into the Brahmanical faith. From that 
time forward they have been recognized as Hindus, 
and have, after a fashion, been loyal members of 
that faith. 

But let it not be supposed that, by becoming 
Hindus, they have deserted their ancestral religion, 
and have ceased to be devil-worshippers. Far from it. 
Hinduism proper is to them a mere plaything, or a 
festival pastime. On special Hindu holidays, and 
perhaps on occasions of pilgrimage, they will visit 
these Hindu temples and bring their offering to the 
deities of Brahmanism. But their chief concern and 
their daily religious occupation is found in the appeas- 
ing of the many devils whose abode is supposed to be 
in their countless village shrines and under well-known 
trees in their hamlets. They have not abated one jot 
of their belief in the supremacy of these devils in their 



2o8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

life-affairs ; and they always stand in fear of them, and 
do what they can to satisfy their bloody demands. 

Thus at least nine-tenths of the people of South 
India are, first of all, demonolaters, and secondly, but 
a long way behind, are Hindus. And yet a great 
many people in the West think of these people as the 
pure worshippers of the highest type of the Brahmani- 
cal faith ! 

And it should not be forgotten that all over India 
there are probably fifty millions of people who are the 
so-called outcasts of the land, the miserable product of 
the caste system of Hinduism. They are " the sub- 
merged tenth " of India. They are not only socially 
ostracized, they are under the definite ban of the 
Hindu faith. They are the hewers of wood and 
drawers of water of Brahmanism. They have no 
place in Hinduism proper; they are not permitted to 
enter any of its temples. They have no right to 
receive whatever comforts religion may confer; its 
rights and its privileges are entirely denied to them. 
But the tyranny of the religion has been such, during 
the many centuries of the past, as to keep this class of 
people not only in absolute social servitude, but also in 
religious dependence; and has taught them (because 
it has compelled them) to be satisfied with the spirit- 



POPULAR HINDUISM 209 

ual crumbs which are the meanest remnants of what 
the religion professes to give its members. 

I have often felt, as I have talked with these poor, 
miserable Pariahs, that I was incapable of understand- 
ing their willingness to remain thus loosely attached to 
a faith which denied to them its most elementary com- 
forts and blessings. The mystery is doubtless to be 
explained by their supreme abjectness and helplessness, 
which have been ground into them by many centuries 
of bondage. The consequence is, that while these 
many millions of outcast people are numbered among 
the Hindus, and regard themselves as Hindus, Hin- 
duism itself has for them nothing but curses, and, more 
than all others, they must be satisfied with the devil- 
worship of their fathers. 

5. Beneath all these lower aspects of popular Hin- 
duism is still found what may be called its lowest 
stratum — Fetichism. There are many people and 
tribes in India who have not ascended sufficiently 
high, in religious conception, to make for themselves 
definite images of the gods they worship. Like the 
African, they are content to take natural objects, such 
as a rock or a stone, and regard it as possessed of 
some spirit and worship it. Sir Alfred Lyall, that 
well-known authority on India, has told us that one 



210 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

can find in India, as in no other land, religion of all 
forms and in all grades of development, — from the 
lowest step of animism to the most spiritual and ab- 
struse pantheism. I myself have seen, within the 
area of one acre of land in South India, the instru- 
ments of these varied forms of worship, from a greasy, 
round stone, before which the lowest classes prostrated 
themselves, to an image of one of the supreme gods of 
Hinduism. There is not a phase of worship, however 
high or mystic, or however mean or degraded, which 
has not its devotees in this land. 

6. Modern Hinduism is also guilty of harbouring 
and fostering immorality. 

This is a cruel statement to make concerning any 
faith. But justice compels me to add this as one of 
the characteristics of Hinduism. Some of the most 
revered and popular writings of this religion are so full 
of obscenity and impure suggestion, that, to publish 
them in a Christian land, in the English tongue, would 
make the publisher liable to imprisonment. When, 
years ago. Lord Dalhousie, the Viceroy of India, 
enacted a law punishing obscenity, the leaders of the 
Hindu religion were so exercised by it that the gov- 
ernment had to exempt religious writings of Hinduism, 
and emblems of that faith, from the action of the law. 



POPULAR HINDUISM 211 

There are many religious books in India to-day which 
are classical in the beauty of their language, but which 
the Universities of India decline to use as text-books 
because of their gross obscenity. 

Among the most demoralizing institutions to the 
youth of India are the temple cars, which are found in 
every village of any consequence throughout the land. 
They are erected at great expense, by temple authori- 
ties, are most elaborately carved, and are used for the 
conveyance of the gods through the village streets 
upon festival occasions. There is hardly one of these 
cars, in South India at any rate, which is not dis- 
figured by grossly sensual carvings such as ought to 
bring blushing shame to any decent and self-respect- 
ing community. They are open to the public gaze, 
and children of the village play under their shadow, 
and gaze daily upon their vile and disgusting sights. 
The government would forbid the erection of such 
cars to-morrow, if they had not pledged themselves not 
to interfere with the religion of the people ! 

In the Vaishnava cult of Hinduism there is at least 
one sect, well known throughout the land, whose wor- 
ship is loaded with impurity, and whose worshippers, 
at certain festivals, specially, yield themselves to all 
forms of sexual practices such as cannot be mentioned. 



212 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Saktl worship, or the worship of the goddesses, 
lends itself definitely to this gross evil ; and the leading 
Tantraic books of this cult are so filthy that they are 
not fit to be translated. In Bengal, where the wor- 
ship of Durgai, the wife of Siva, is dominant, the 
Hindus themselves are beginning to protest against 
the lewdness, obscenity, and licentiousness which pre- 
vail at their great Holi festival, which is the annual 
festival of the goddess. 

Another institution connected with the temple wor- 
ship of India, and of which Hindus ought to be 
heartily ashamed, is that of dancing-girls. Little 
girls in their infancy are devoted and dedicated by 
their own mothers to the temples. They are sup- 
posed to be married to the gods of the temple, and 
are called "the servants of the gods." They dance in 
attendance upon the gods, upon festival occasions, 
and are an inherent part of the temple worship. But 
the sad thing about these women is that their own 
mothers knew, when they dedicated them in infancy, 
that they were binding them to a life of shame. For 
the dancing-girls are the professional prostitutes of In- 
dia. There are a host of these women (twelve thou- 
sand in South India alone) who, without their own con- 
sent, and in the sacred name of religion, have been 



POPULAR HINDUISM 213 

handed over to this Hfe of shame, to corrupt and debase 
the youth of the land. Their Hfe is a loud cry against 
their mother-faith, which systematically devotes them 
to destruction of soul and body. Some educated men 
of the land denounce this as an evil which should be 
stopped. But the leaders of the faith turn a deaf ear 
to all such cries. 

7. The treatment of woman within Hinduism is 
worthy of attention. 

Hinduism has never looked with kindness or con- 
sideration upon women. It seems to have been its 
settled policy to treat them with contempt and un- 
kindness. The consequence is that the girl babe is 
never welcome in the Hindu family. And from the 
cradle to the grave woman has no independence or 
right within the pale of this faith. During child- 
hood she is in bondage to her father, during her 
marriage she must give implicit obedience to her 
husband, and as a widow she remains the ward of 
her sons. 

Look at the disabilities under which the Hindu 
woman labours to-day. 

She is held in ignorance. Only six Hindu women 
out of one thousand are able to read and write. She 
has never been regarded as worthy of education. 



214 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Her ignorance has been regarded as her safety, and 
has been the studied policy of Hinduism. 

She has never been regarded as worthy to know the 
sacred books of her own faith. It is a sin in Hin- 
duism to-day for any man to teach a woman the most 
sacred truths of the faith. Her mind is not a fit re- 
ceptacle for such truths. 

While she has nothing to do in choosing for her- 
self a husband, she is bound in infancy, through holy 
wedlock, to a child like herself. Her child husband 
may die before he attains manhood, when she becomes 
a widow. And, because her stars are supposed to 
have had influence in his death, she is treated with 
cruelty and is regarded as the evil star of the 
home. 

Owing to this evil custom of child marriage, there 
arie to-day twenty-six million wddows in this land, of 
whom four hundred thousand are under fifteen years 
of age. It is not simply that the lot of these poor 
women is one of greatest hardship and contempt; 
they also become the prey of lustful men and fall into 
grossest sins. In modern times the government has 
tried to lighten the burdens of womanhood in the 
land ; but the representatives of Hinduism, and its 
custodians, all stand in the way of any helpful legisla- 



POPULAR HINDUISM 215 

tion, and are determined to keep woman in servitude 
at all hazards. 

8. The religious ascetic represents one of the char- 
acteristic features of modern Hinduism. 

Religious asceticism has been the ideal of the 
Hindu life from time immemorial. The man who 
has given up all earthly pursuits and wanders with 
beggar's cup in hand from place to place, making 
pilgrimages to the holy places of India, or who sepa- 
rates himself entirely from men and devotes years to 
the solitude of the wilderness in the cultivation of 
piety, — he it is who is the admiration of the whole 
Hindu community. And it is for this very reason 
that so many men in India to-day don the yellow robe 
of this profession, and make capital out of this 
sentiment of the people. 

There are millions of these religious mendicants 
who are entirely non-productive and live upon the 
common people. A few of them, doubtless, are sin- 
cere and are seeking after communion with God. 
But the vast majority are lazy and rotten to the core. 
Their life is known to be utterly worthless, and they 
are morally pestiferous in their influence upon the 
whole community. And yet the people accept them 
as the highest types of piety in the land. Even the 



2i6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

poorest among them would give his last morsel to 
these worthless men. There are, indeed, very few in 
the community who would dare to refuse an offering 
to these beggars, because they are so ready to invoke 
dreadful imprecations upon those who decline to give 
anything to them. There are few things that an ortho- 
dox Hindu dreads more than the curse of a religious 
ascetic. 

Thus, though these men are known to trample un- 
der foot every law of God and are utterly useless to 
the whole community, the people nevertheless regard 
them very highly and shower their blessings upon 
them. 

In any land the maintenance of such an army would 
be a great burden upon the people ; in India, where 
they are so poor, how heavy this burden must be, and 
how great must be the curse of such a host preying 
both morally and physically upon the rest of the 
community ! 

It is equally disastrous to the conception of the com- 
mon people concerning their faith that so large a body 
of recognized hypocrites should, nevertheless, be so 
highly esteemed as types of piety. 

The existence of this class of worthless men reveals, 
also, another striking fact which characterizes the 



POPULAR HINDUISM 217 

religion of India, and that is the utter divorce of faith 
and morals. Hinduism has never recognized any con- 
nection, and least of all any essential union, between 
piety and ethics. As we have seen, the most pious 
men in the land, according to Indian ideas, may be 
the most immoral. This has been one of the fatal 
defects of Hinduism from the earliest times. Con- 
science has found very small place in this religion of 
the Brahmans. 

9. Modern Hinduism, also, inculcates the spirit of 
pessimism among its people. The Puranas tell us, 
and the people universally believe it, that we are now 
living in Kali Yuga, the iron age, in which all things 
are evil, and in which righteousness is a thing largely 
unknown to the people. All the forces of this age are 
against the good, and it leaves no encouragement to 
any one to try to do, and to be, good.^ 

10. Add to this the even more potent belief of the 
people in astrology. The planets and the stars, the 
moon and the nodes are living gods, they say, which 
wield an influence over the life and destiny of human 
beings. The astrologer is perhaps the most important 
functionary in the social and religious life of the 
people. No marriage can be performed unless the 

1 See Chapter X, Kali Yuga. 



2i8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

horoscope of the bride and the bridegroom harmonize. 
No social or domestic event of importance, and 
specially no religious ceremony of any consequence, 
can be carried on save during what are called auspi- 
cious days and moments. Astrology is the right hand 
of Hinduism, and it has supreme authority in the 
direction of most of its affairs. 

Add to this the belief in omens, which enters very 
largely into human life and thought. A Hindu will 
not start upon a journey save on what is astrologically 
an auspicious day; and if even a crow crosses his path 
from left to right, after he has begun his journey, it is 
regarded as an ill omen, and he will at once return 
home. He spends much of his time in watching such 
omens; even an ass's bray carries a significance to 
him. If it is heard in the east, his success will be 
delayed; in the southeast, it portends death; in the 
south, it means wealth ; etc. It matters not how im- 
portant it may be that a man should undertake a 
journey or a task at a certain time, he will not do it at 
that time if he finds it to be inauspicious. When the 
new governor of Madras recently arrived at his des-ii 
tination, the reception to be given to him by the Hindus' 
had to be postponed because it was ignorantly put at 
an hour which was Rahu Kala — an inauspicious hour! 



POPULAR HINDUISM 219 

In a thousand similar ways, the Hindu people are 
controlled and handicapped by silly superstitions which 
make life a burden to them and which rob them of 
efficiency and sanity. 

This, then, is the Hinduism of the masses; and no 
other people devote themselves so faithfully to their 
faith as do these. And none, for this very reason, are 
more worthy of our sympathy and of our assistance to 
rise to better things in the realm of faith. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS AS THEY AFFECT THE 
PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 

To the student of comparative religion there 
appear many striking consonances between Hin- 
duism and Christianity. Many a deep note in reli- 
gious thought and life finds common expression in 
these two great faiths. Yet their dissonances are 
much more marked and fundamental. 

In nothing are Christianity and Hinduism more 
antipodal than in the ideals which they exalt, re- 
spectively, before their followers; and this conflict 
of ideals is the most stubborn, as it is the most 
pervasive, that Christianity has to face in India. 
The vision of God and of man, of human life and 
attainment, which we present before an orthodox 
Hindu, does not impress him as it should, simply 
because it does not fit into his thinking. It antago- 
nizes his inherited prepossessions; it violates many 
of the most cherished ideals of religious life and 
spiritual endowment, which, from time immemorial, 
have been handed down to him. 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 221 

It is an interesting question how much of this 
difference is of the essence of the two religions, 
and how much is the product of the mental and 
spiritual make-up of the tropical East, on the one 
hand, and of the more northern West, on the other. 
The climatic and national idiosyncrasies are more 
potential in the complexion of the two faiths than 
we are wont to think. 

But whether these different ideals are, or are 
not, essentially characteristic of the two faiths, is 
not a question quite germane to my present pur- 
pose. It is enough to remember that the western 
conception of Christianity, which the missionary 
has inherited and which he is eagerly presenting, 
and can hardly avoid presenting, to the people of 
this land, is far removed from what the Hindu has 
always been taught to believe that a religion should 
bring into a man's life and possession. 

It is easy enough to prove to the man of ordi- 
nary intelligence the debasing influence of idolatry, 
the accursed slavery of the caste system, the gross 
immorality of the Hindu pantheon, and the dwarf- 
ing and degrading character of the ceremonialism 
of modern Hinduism. 

But behind and above all these, the Hindu has 



222 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

inherited a number of ideals which allure and com- 
mand him. They are his ultimate criteria and 
resort, and they conflict with those which the sup- 
planting faith presents as the summum bonum of 
life. It is not until the Christian teacher can show 
to him, in a way that will move him, the excellence 
of the supreme ideals of Christianity above those 
of the old faith, that his work can be said to have 
achieved a triumph in his life. 

Hence the great — I might almost say the tran- 
scendent — importance of mission schools of all 
grades through which are sown the seed of a new 
philosophy of life. Herein also lies the even more 
valued service which a sane and a strong Christian 
literature in English and in all the vernaculars of 
the land can render, and is rendering, to the cause 
of Christ in India. For the fight in India is, more 
than it is or has been in any other land, one that 
gathers around basal conceptions and fundamental 
postulates about God and man and life ; and Chris- 
tianity can never seem attractive to an intelligent 
Hindu until it has conquered his assent at these 
points of vital importance. 

Let us consider a few of these ideals which every- 
where and always obtrude themselves upon us in India. 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 223 

I 

The Divine Ideal 

In the conception of the Godhead which obtains 
in Christianity and that which dominates modern 
Hinduism there is found a difference of emphasis 
which amounts almost to a contrast. To the Hindu, 
the Supreme Soul or Brham is idealized Intelligence ; 
to the Christian God is perfect Will. To the former, 
He is supreme Wisdom ; to the other, He is infinite 
Goodness. The devotees of each faith aspire to be- 
come like unto, or to partake of, their Divine Ideal. 
Hence the goal of the one is brahma gnana (Divine 
Wisdom) ; of the other, it is supreme love or good- 
ness. Thus at its foundation the religion of India has 
always placed perfect intelligence as its corner stone, 
while the basis of the rival faith has been an ideal 
of ethical perfectio7t. Hence, that process of intel- 
lectual gymnastics which so markedly characterizes 
the higher realms of Hindu sainthood and effort, 
on the one hand, and the altruistic fervour and out- 
going charity of the ideal Christian, on the other. 
For this reason, also, the great root of bitterness 
which Hinduism has, from the first, sought to 
remove has been ignorance {avidia) — that intel- 



224 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

lectual blindness which persists in maintaining that 
the self and the Supreme Soul are separate realities 
and which is the only barrier to the self's final 
emancipation and final absorption into the Divine. 
To the Christian, on the other hand, the dread 
enemy is sin — that moral obliquity which differen- 
tiates the soul from the perfect ethical beauty of 
God. In consonance with this, the salvation which 
is exalted as the summtcm bonum^ to be forever 
sought by the one, is self-knowledge, by the other 
self-realization in conformity to the Divine Will. 
I would not affirm that moral rectitude is absent as 
a desideratum from the ambition of the Hindu, nor 
that the Christian does not accept with his Lord 
that "this is eternal life to know God," and that he 
does not aspire with the great Apostle "to know 
even as I am known." But the supreme emphasis 
which is given by the one to nescience as the evil 
to be removed, and to wisdom as the crowning 
grace to be achieved, and, by the other, to rebellion 
of heart against God as the great sin, and to trans- 
formation to His moral image as perfected salv^ 
tion, is much too marked to be overlooked by the 
student of these two faiths, and by the Christian 
missionary in the land. 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 225 

And all of this comes as a natural consequence 
from the different concepts which the two religions 
have of God Himself. Indeed, these two standpoints 
from which the Godhead is conceived account for 
the deepest divergencies of Hindu and Christian 
philosophy and theology. 

II 

The Hindu and Christian Conceptions of Incar- 
nation are similarly Divergent 

Incarnation is a fundamental doctrine of the 
religion of Jesus. It is also an overshadowing tenet 
of modern Hinduism. For this reason, the Chris- 
tian missionary finds in this doctrine the best lever- 
age wherewith to raise the Hindu to our faith. 
Yet at this very point his efforts are largely frus- 
trated by the very different conceptions which ob- 
tain in the two relisfions. The Christian incarnation 

O 

must be, and is, first of all, of a perfect ethical type 
— an ideal of transcendent moral beauty and spirit- 
ual excellence. The least flaw or crookedness in 
His character would vitiate His pretensions, and 
would be the death-blow to the doctrine of His 
incarnation and divinity. In Hinduism, on the 
other hand, moral criteria have no application to 



226 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

the " descents " or incarnations of Vishnu. To his 
three first incarnations (of the fish, the tortoise, 
and the boar), moral tests are, of course, out of 
place ; nor are they any more applicable to the 
grossly sensual Krishna, who is the only " full " 
incarnation of the god, and who is the supremely 
popular modern incarnation of the Hindu pantheon. 
Hindus have never dreamt of squaring the " going " 
of their incarnations with ethical demands and 
standards. 

Whatsoever of good Vishnu, in his descent, is said 
to have come to achieve in the world, it certainly was 
not a moral or a spiritual good. So an appeal to the 
moral excellence, or to the atoning work and purpose, 
of the Christ does not, at first, in any way impress 
them as an argument for His divine character or 
heavenly origin, any more than the moral obliquity of 
their own " descents " argues to the contrary. 

Moreover, the Hindu conception of incarnation 
largely resembles the Jewish. It must be a triumphant 
descent. Vishnu, in all his incarnations, came to de- 
stroy rather than to suffer himself to be put to death. 
A suffering and a dying god is to-day, to the Hindu, 
what it was twenty centuries ago to the Jew and Greek 
— a stumbling-block and a foolishness. It is true that 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 227 

Buddha, who was in more recent times adopted as an 
incarnation, in order to win over to modern Hinduism 
the followers of his faith, is somewhat of an exception 
to this rule. But not, according to the Hindu inter- 
pretation of it. 

So the two elements of glory in the incarnation of 
Christ — His spotless character and His Cross and 
death — do not ordinarily appeal to the inhabitants of 
this land as in any sense necessary or important. 

Ill 

Ideals of Life 

From the above considerations it will be natural to 
conclude that the ideals of life entertained by the East 
and West are far removed. The conflict of these 
ideals is the primary cause of the many strange reli- 
gious and social movements which to-day send their 
ramifications into every town and hamlet of this land ; 
and it creates the mighty revolution now at work in 
India. 

Consider first the religious ideals which dominate 
this land and the " Far West." Hinduism has exalted 
asceticism as the highest type of life and the best 
method of holy attainment. From time immemorial 
the religious mendicant, with his ideals of self-renunci- 



2 28 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

ation and ascetic practices, has found universal admir- 
ation among this people, and his motives and methods 
stand as the most highly approved in all the annals of 
this religion. 

It is true that this was universally exalted above all 
other forms of life among Christians also at one time, 
as it continues to be among, perhaps, the majority 
to-day. And is not the Cross, which is the emblem of 
self-renunciation and self-effacement, the motive power 
of our faith, as it is also the embodied ideal of our Life ? 
True ; but there is this marked difference between the 
two faiths. In Christianity the Cross is only a means. 
The Cross of self-effacement is the pathway of Christ 
and of the Christian to the crown of self-realization. 
We despise the lower good in order that we may 
attain unto the higher. 

In Hinduism, the rigours of asceticism are, indeed, 
sometimes a means to an end ; but that end is not 
character or any spiritual achievement, but power with 
the gods. Nearly all the notable instances of religious 
austerities and self-torture practised hy yogis, and re- 
corded in Hindu legend and history, were undertaken 
for the purpose of accumulating thereby a great store 
of merit through which power might be acquired over 
men or gods. Thus many an ascetic is said to have so 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 229 

subdued and afflicted his body that nearly the whole 
Hindu pantheon trembled in the presence of the 
power thus acquired by him. 

But when the Hindu ascetic has not this object in 
self-renunciation, his austerities are an end in them- 
selves. He renounces all — not simply the mean 
things of life, but also the noblest ambitions and the 
most heavenly sentiments — because they are a fetter 
which bind him to the world. He indeed calls a g-ood 
deed, or a holy thought, a "golden fetter," but it is, 
just the same, regarded by him as an evil which pro- 
longs his human existence ; and these human con- 
ditions must be ended as soon as possible. 

The Christian, on the other hand, suppresses his 
passions in order that his holy desires may prevail ; the 
Hindu struggles equally against the worst passions and 
the noblest sentiments of his heart ; for they all delay 
that calm equilibrium of the i-^^ which is the doorway 
into sayutchia (absorption). Thus character, or the 
prevalence of the nobler sentiments of our nature 
above the meaner, is not, and never has been, the aim 
of Hindu asceticism. And in consonance with this 
fact is the other, namely, that nine-tenths of the five 
and a half million ascetics, sadhus, and fakhirs of In- 
dia are universally recognized as pestilential in their 



230 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

morals, and as distinguished examples of what the 
laity of the land should avoid being or becoming. 

The Christian seeks, as his ideal, the perfect blend- 
ing of the ethical and the spiritual in his life ; in Hin- 
duism, faith has always been divorced from morality, 
and there has never seemed to be any incongruity, in 
their minds, in the act of ascribing true saintliness and 
spiritual excellence to those who are known daily to 
trample under foot every command of the Decalogue. 

Thus the ideal life which has captivated India from 
time immemorial, and which at this present wields a 
mighty influence over the people, is not the generous, 
the upright, and morally spotless life, so much as the 
wandering, the monastic, or the secluded forest life of 
the ascetic, regardless of its spiritual character. In 
other words, it is not a stern and noble victory over 
sin and worldliness in the common relationships of life, 
but a fleeing from the sin and duties and responsibili- 
ties of life into the mutt, or wilderness, which has fas- 
cinated the inhabitants of this peninsula as the best 
type of life possible. 

Now, in view of all this, what shall the Christian 
teacher do in this land ? Shall he also exalt this 
ideal and temper it with Christian wisdom and 
chasten it with Christian meaning? Doubtless the 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 231 

wise missionary will consider well the amount of 
emphasis which this aspect of life requires in India, 
in view of the ideal which Hinduism has presented 
to the popular mind. He will also, I think, hesitate, 
on the one hand, to bring his faith into comparison 
with Hinduism in the matter of mere ascetic rigour 
and severe self-mortification, in which the Christian 
has always lagged far behind the Hindu devotee 
and monk. On the other hand, he will not be 
likely to exalt over-much this type of life in a land 
in which, for more than three thousand years, it has 
ruled supremely but has had so little of moral signifi- 
cance and has achieved such meagre spiritual results. 
Another phase of life which furnishes to the 
people an ideal is the ceremo7iial. Among the 
myriad gods of the Hindu pantheon and all 
the sages of its history and legend, there is not one 
who is worthy to be exalted as an ideal of char- 
acter. The reason is not far to find. With this, 
however, we are not at present concerned. It is 
enough if we remember that this absence of an 
incarnate ideal in the religion has led to the exal- 
tation of rules and ceremonies as the safeguards of — 
yea, more, as the very essence of — a worthy and 
noble life. There is no sadder fact in India at 



232 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

present than that of this great religion, of two hun- 
dred and thirty million souls, being largely emptied 
of moral content as related to the common life, 
and built up of numberless petty external cere- 
monies which harass the individual, and grip the 
life with a dead hand at all points. The ceremoni- 
alism of the Scribes and Pharisees in the days of 
our Lord and which excited His supreme wrath, 
was not a consequence as compared to that of 
Hinduism to-day. From conception even to the 
burning-ground, every detail of life, individual and 
communal, religious and social (there is no social 
as apart from religious life in Hinduism), is cast 
into a mould of ceremony or ritual which robs it 
of ethical content, and makes it into what an indig- 
nant Brahman writer recently called " a huge sham." 
To the ordinary Hindu, all of life's values are 
measured in the coin of external rites. Let one be 
an atheist if he please, or even a libertine or a 
murderer, and his status in Hinduism is not im- 
paired. But let him eat beef, even unwittingly, or 
let him ignorantly drink water which has been 
touched by a man of lower caste than himself, and 
his doom is irrevocably sealed ! Through this 
whole system the Hindu conscience is perverted, 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 233 

and the true distinction between right and wrong 
is buried deep under this greatest and most elabo- 
rate mass of ceremonial that the world has ever 
known. To a people who have thus inherited the 
ceremonial instinct, who are Pharisees by a hun- 
dred-fold heritage and by sweet choice, it is not an 
easy thing for the man of the West, with his natu- 
ral distrust of all that is formal and outward in 
life, to present effectively his Lord, whose bitterest 
woes were pronounced against the formalists of His 
time, and whose commands are always ethical, and 
whose life is, first of all, and last of all, spiritual. 

Another ideal of life which has too exclusive 
emphasis in this land is that which is denominated 
quietism — an ideal which extols the passive virtues 
as distinguished from the manly, aggressive ones. 
I would by no means claim that these two ideals 
are Hindu and Christian, respectively. They are 
rather begotten of the countries and climes under 
which the two religions have been, for many cen- 
turies, fostered. To the eastern and tropical Chris- 
tian, the teaching of our Lord furnishes abundant 
warrant for a glorifying of the passive and non- 
resisting virtues. And I am inclined to believe 
that we of the West have few things of greater 



234 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

importance and of deeper religious significance to 
learn from the East than the appreciation of such 
graces of life as patience and endurance under evil. 
We stand always prepared to fight manfully for our 
convictions, and to obtrude them at all points upon 
friend and foe alike. It is not in the nature of the 
East to do this. We say that he has no stamina. 
We call him, in opprobrium, "the mild Hindu." 
But let us not forget that he will reveal tenfold 
more patience than we under very trying circum- 
stances, and will turn the other cheek to the enemy 
when we rush into gross sin by our haste and ire. 
His is one of the hemispheres of a full-orbed char- 
acter. Ours of the West is the other. Let us not 
flatter ourselves too positively that our assertive, 
aggressive part is the more beautiful or the more 
important. Yea, more, I question whether ours is 
the stronger and more masculine part of life and 
character; for is it not to most of us an easier 
thing to fling ourselves in vehemence against an 
evil in others than it is to sit calmly and patiently 
under a false accusation, as our Lord Himself did? 
At least it must be left an open question as to 
whether the impulsive and domineering vigour of 
the West is preferable to the " mildness " of the East. 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 



235 



What I wish to emphasize is the dissimilarity 
between our western type of Hfe and the eastern, 
and to warn the Christian worker from the West 
against the danger of assuming that Christian life 
must be adorned with only those western traits 
and excellences of character which are foreign and 
unpalatable to the East — the very fault which 
also characterizes the Hindu on his side, and which 
makes him feel so superior at times and so inacces- 
sible to Christian influence. For, let it not be for- 
gotten that the Hindu regards what we call our 
foibles of petulance, arrogance, and intolerance, with 
the same disapprobation and disgust as we do their 
more frequent violation of the seventh, eighth, and 
ninth commandments of the Decalogue. And who 
is to decide as to which catalogue is the worse and 
the more heinous in the sight of God } 

IV 

T/ie Hindu Conception of Ultimate Salvation presents 
Another Point of Divergence from the Christian 
Ideal of Life Beyond 

Even in the methods and processes of redemp- 
tion pursued by the two religions we see funda- 
mental differences. In Christianity, God is the prime 



236 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Agent in human salvation. He worketh for us, in 
us, and through us. In our own redemption we are 
only co-labourers with Him. 

In Hinduism, man stands absolutely alone as the 
agent and cause of his salvation. And, as the stupen- 
dous task rests upon his shoulders, it is no wonder 
that he has sought relief in the doctrine of metempsy- 
chosis, .whereby it is believed that millions of rebirths 
furnish to him an adequate time and a sufficient vari- 
ety of opportunity for the great consummation. But 
he has never given to himself, or to us, the first reason 
for believing that this endless fugue of rebirths will 
accomplish that which he accepts without questioning ; 
namely, the ultimate glorification of all souls. There 
is nothing in this long and tedious process itself which 
assures us that any soul will reach final beatification 
rather than permanent and irremediable degradation. 
And yet the ultimate absorption of all souls into the 
Divine is assumed as a matter of course by him. This 
process, and that of Christianity, are expressive of the 
characteristics of the two faiths and of the two peoples. 
The slow and patient East, and the faith which it has 
begotten, spins out its theory of time and of human 
existence almost ad i7tfi7iiHim. Multitudinous births 
alone can satisfy the demands of the tedious process 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 237 

of human emancipation. But, in Christianity, one 
passage through this world, with human hands clasped 
in the Divine, suffices to open the door of eternal bliss 
to the redeemed soul. And this idea is consonant 
with the more youthful nature of the West, to whose 
people one birth, followed by a life of energy, furnishes 
an entrance into eternal joy beyond. 

It is equally important that we take note of that 
which is connoted by the final consummation offered 
by each of these two faiths to their followers. To the 
Christian there is a conscious, blessed life beyond 
death — a separate, personal existence which will last 
throughout eternity in the sunshine of the Heavenly 
Father's presence and in the ineffable joy and glory of 
His fellowship. It is the idealized life built upon the 
foundation of what is best and most stirring and beau- 
tiful here upon earth. It is life, in all that this blessed 
word signifies of sweet contemplation, of blissful activ- 
ity, of imperishable love, and of unspeakable joy. All 
the most beautiful and enticing imagery of earth has 
been used to portray, or rather to suggest, the " eternal 
life " of the Christian religion. 

But what is the picture which Hinduism has drawn 
of the finality of life to its followers .? After the weary 
fugue of births and re-births, with its interludes of 



238 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

many heavens and hells, the " self " passes on into final 
union with the Divine Soul. It loses all conscious- 
ness and self-knowledge ; every vestige of personality 
and all that this implies is swept away; it is incapaci- 
tated for every emotion of joy and for every act of ser- 
vice. There is nothing that we associate with life at 
its best and sweetest which does not find here nega- 
tion. It is a calm blank, a rest, indeed, but from 
every struggle of thought, will, and emotion. This 
is the consummation which India has for many 
centuries held aloft as an attraction to its weary 
pilgrims. 

Here, again, we observe how appropriate to the end 
in view is the supreme difficulty of the way. If the 
highest struggle of the soul in this world is against 
existence and its human actions and conditions, it is 
to be expected that a complete riddance of life and of 
all its accompaniments will be the summum bonum 
of the final consummation. And if this struggle for 
emancipation is to continue through numberless births 
and earthly existences, it is natural that the coveted 
end should bring a loss of all that life connotes in 
highest sentiment as well as basest passion. I need 
not dwell upon the contrast between this and the 
anticipations entertained by every humble Christian. 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 239 

This whole eschatological system of Hinduism cor- 
responds, as we have seen, to the teaching of that faith 
in reference to God, man, and earthly life and condi- 
tions. And the Christian preacher's or teacher's vivid 
portrayal of the Christian's heaven too often denotes 
to the Hindu only one of the many purgatorial heavens 
of his religion, and rarely suggests to him the supreme 
test of the value of our faith as contrasted with his 
own. The glories of our heaven do not appeal to 
the stolid, weary, transmigration-ridden soul of the 
Hindu as they do to the youthful, hopeful, buoyant 
soul of the Christian. And this is a fact which 
the missionary would do well to keep in mind at all 
times. 

I might continue the list of the incompatibilities of 
Hindu and Christian ideals. But I have gone far 
enough to show, I trust, that the two faiths are at 
many points antipodal, and that their ideals clash in 
matters fundamental and crucial. 

Further, I wish to repeat that I do not maintain 
that Christian ideals are always, or even ever, repre- 
sented in their fulness, or with the right emphasis, by 
us of the West. Hinduism is an ethnic faith, and it 
must be weighed and valued by the ideals which the 
people of this land have imbibed from it and invariably 



240 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

connect with it. Christianity is a world faith, and 
no one nation or continent can be a full exemplar, or 
an all-wise interpreter, of its life and ideals. Hence 
I claim that one of the considerations which demand 
closest attention from a western teacher, as he imparts 
his faith to the people of India, is that of the choice 
and emphasis of ideals which he shall present to them. 
Let him neither assume, on the one hand, that Hindu 
ideals are unchristian, nor, on the other, that our 
western ideals, both in their emphasis and exclusive- 
ness, are the all-in-all of Christian truth and life. 
Christianity in the East, when it becomes thoroughly 
indigenous, will reveal and glorify a different type of 
life from that of the West. It will be less aggressive 
and assertive, but more contemplative and more deeply 
pious and other-worldly than anything we have been 
wont to see in the West. 

The day has come when missionaries must study 
with more seriousness the religion of India, that they 
may understand its true inwardness and discover its 
sources of power. Above all, they must be conversant 
with its highest ideals and understand the relationship 
of the same to those of their own faith. And they 
must not forget that they must approach this study 
with genuine sympathy and appreciation, in order to 



HINDU RELIGIOUS IDEALS 241 

find the best in Hinduism, as well as to be fortified 
against its worst features. 

Never before did the educated men of this land 
stand up with more determination for their old ideals, 
and this is a matter of serious concern to our cause. 
On the other hand, the most encouraging fact in the 
realm of Christian work in India at the present time 
is that of the marvellous place which our Lord has 
found among the people of the land, especially the 
educated, as the ideal of life. They will have none 
of Him as a Saviour, and His death has no signifi- 
cance to them. But His blessed life has become the 
inspiration and the ideal of life to the cultured classes 
of India, in a way which is transforming their ethical 
conceptions and which largely eclipses all other life- 
influences among them. Herein lies our hope and 
assurance for India. But what they crave, and what 
they say they must have, is "an Oriental Christ," a 
Christ who is not presented in a western garb of life 
and thought. Herein do we learn a most important 
lesson for our life-work, as Christian missionaries in 
this land of the East. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 

The home life of a people is one of the most 
decisive tests of its character and its state of civil- 
ization. 

In this chapter I shall attempt only to describe 
the home life of Hindus. And even within this 
limitation I can only refer to the general character- 
istics which obtain among nearly all Hindus, and shall 
pass by the details, which differ so largely in different 
parts of the country and among different castes. 

It is in the home that the natural religious bent 

of the Hindu finds its full scope and most touching V 

manifestations. Generally speaking, one may say that 

the house of a Hindu is his sanctuary, where the tutelar 

god has its niche or shrine to which daily worship is 

rendered. There is hardly any event connected with 

home life which is not religiously viewed and made 

the occasion of definite family worship. Of the sixteen 

events in the life of a man, from birth to death, there 

is not one which is not viewed from a religious aspect, 

and is not accompanied by an elaborate ritual. 

242 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 243 

There is hardly a respectable Hindu household in 
which there is not a shrine containing an idol of stone 
or of some metal which corresponds in value to the 
measure of the family's wealth. " Every morning and 
evening it is worshipped by the hereditary /wrd?/^^/, or 
priest, who visits the house for the purpose twice a 
day, and who, as the name implies, is the first in all 
ceremonies, second to none but the Guru, or spiritual 
guide. The offerings of rice, fruits, sweetmeats, and 
milk, made to the god, he carries home after the close 
of the service. A conch is blown, a bell is rung, and 
a gong beaten at the time of worship, when the reli- 
giously disposed portion of the inmates, male and 
female, in a quasi-penitent attitude, make their obei- 
sance to the god and receive in return the hollow 
benediction of the priest."^ 

Even the building of the house is a matter which 
must be done according to the rules of faith. The 
selection of a site, the correct orientation of the 
building, the number and location of the rooms, 
the proper material for the structure, — all of these 
must be determined by the Vastu Sastri, or the archi- 
tects, who do their business not so much on scientific 
lines as upon religious. They have their Shastras, or 
1 From " Hindus as They Are." 



244 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

books of instruction, in architecture, whose basis is 
largely a consideration of the supposed sentiments of 
the gods and a proper harmonizing in the building 
of various religious conceits, crude superstitions, and 
immemorial customs. 

Even the day and hour of entering and dedicating 
the house must be fixed by rules of faith, which are as 
exacting as they are multitudinous. To enter and 
consecrate a house at the wrong astrological moment 
would bring in its train a number of domestic disasters. 
The house may be anything, from a most primitive hut 
to a many-aisled palace ; but in every case the astrolo- 
ger must be consulted as to the time; the spiritual 
architect must give his rules as to the structure ; and 
the family priest must make the house habitable by an 
elaborate ceremonial and offerings to the god or gods 
of the family. 

It is only after all these have been accomplished 
that a householder may, with a clean conscience, enter 
his new home and expect a blessing upon his family 
therein. 

To a stranger who passes through the streets of 
a town or village it may seem strange that no two 
adjoining houses have exactly the same orientation. 
He may think it an evidence of carelessness, or a want 



I 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 245 

of taste. But to the Hindu it is the result of pious 
conformity to the rules of his faith. To a non- Hindu 
it may seem peculiar that Hindus generally enter their 
new homes in the first half of the year. But to the 
Hindu it is the only half when the gods are awake ; 
it would be unpropitious and almost sacrilegious to 
dedicate a house in that part of the year when the 
gods are supposed to be asleep! 

The Hindu home would not be, to a westerner, 
either pleasant or convenient. It looks dingy and 
dark, doors are small and massive, windows are few 
and generally closed. This is partly because they are 
intended to keep out the tropical glare, and partly 
because the people seem averse to occupying an airy 
room. A westerner would suffocate in a room in 
which Hindus would delight to spend a night. It has 
always been a wonder to the writer that they thrive on 
so little fresh air in their homes. 

Hindus, in the main, care very little for elaborate 
household furniture. Even in homes of wealth, 
articles of household furniture are few and are chosen 
merely for utility's sake, save in homes where west- 
ern ideas are finding their way and a growing desire 
to ape western manners takes possession of a family. 
Some years ago, a wealthy Hindu gentleman wel- 



246 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

corned the writer into his fine new three-storied bun- 
galow, whose front door was elaborately carved and 
had cost Rs. 2000. It was furnished with fantastic 
articles of European furniture. Mechanical toys and 
speaking dolls had places of prominence ; and among 
the pictures which adorned the walls the place of 
honour was given to a framed tailor's pattern-plate! 
A full-sized painting of the late British queen was 
specially honoured by being kept in a dark closet! 
The family did not live in this house, but occupied a 
comfortable one-storied building in the back yard. 
It was adequate to their needs and in harmony with 
their tastes. 

Hindus generally sleep on the floor. They spread 
a mat under them, and this suffices for the ordinary 
man. Many add to this a dirty pillow, which is a 
mark of extravagance and an evidence of degeneracy. 
The men of the house may sleep anywhere within, 
or in the verandah without, according to the season 
of the year. Recently, western ideas have en- 
croached upon this primitive, sanitary custom, and 
cots are finding an ever increasing place in the house- 
hold economy. 

The Hindu family system is widely different from 
that of the West. Among them the Joint Family 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 247 

System prevails universally. It is built on the old 
patriarchal idea, according to which three generations 
generally live under the same roof and enjoy a com- 
munity of life and of interest. When a man and 
wife have reared a family, the sons bring to the 
paternal home their wives and live together and 
raise their families in the common home of their 
father. The supreme authority, in the direction of 
all their affairs, rests with the father. And the 
mother generally takes charge of the household com- 
missariat. The whole income of all the members 
of the family is brought into the common treasury, 
out of which all expenses are met. There is no 
individual property, and no rights and privileges 
which any one can claim apart from another's in that 
home. In large Hindu families there is often found 
a small colony thus living together and dependent 
for guidance and instruction upon the father. This 
system entails a great deal of responsibility upon the 
head, whose authority is supreme. And so loyal 
is every Hindu to paternal authority that there is 
never any question raised by any one as to obedience 
to his commands. 

This system has its advantages. In early times, ^ 
it brought strength and security to households thus t ^c-' 

V ■ 



248 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

consolidated. It is doubtless favourable to general 
economy. And it has the peculiar merit of develop- 
ing a strong sense of responsibility in the whole 
family for its every member, however incapacitated 
she or he may be for self-support. The weak and 
the sick and the feeble-minded have the same claim 
upon the resources of the family as have the others, 
and the claim is universally recognized. For this 
reason, poor-houses are not needed in India. 

On the other hand, Hindus themselves are coming 
to regard this system as being out of joint with modern 
life, under the ccgis of a progressive, civilized govern- 
ment. One of its chief defects is its encouragement 
of laziness in members of families. No one feels that 
he is responsible for his own maintenance. And no 
matter how industrious a member may be, the prod- 
uct of his labour is not his own — it belongs to the 
family. Such a system saps the foundation of indus- 
try and enterprise. It furnishes constant temptation 
to slothfulness and inactivity. In former times, this 
may not have been so manifest ; but at present, when 
opportunities open wide their inviting doors, and 
means of accumulating wealth and influence multi- 
ply, the system has become a source of discontent 
and of serious difficulty in the community. 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 249 

A few years ago the educated Hindus of South 
India were so exercised over the injustice of the situa- 
tion that they urged upon the Madras Legislature a 
new act, called " the Gains Learning Bill," whereby 
every man might claim the financial results of his 
own labours and accumulate wealth apart from the 
property of the family. The matter was fully argued 
in the Legislature, and the injustice of the Joint 
Family System was so clearly revealed in this matter, 
that the bill was carried through. Thereupon, ortho- 
dox Hindus raised such a storm of opposition to the 
bill and decried it so vehemently, as a subversion of 
their faith and an overthrow of their most ancient 
and cherished institution, that the governor never 
signed the bill ; and it has therefore never become 
law. 

Nevertheless, the agitation against the system is 
increasing, and the incongruity of the Joint Family 
System with modern social conditions is becoming 
so marked that the day of its overthrow is ap- 
proaching. 

A well-known Hindu writer describes the injustice 
of this system as follows : " As one of the usual 
consequences of a patriarchal system, a respectable 
Hindu is often obliged to support a number of 



250 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

hangers-on, more or less related to him by kinship. 
A brother, an uncle, a nephew, a brother-in-law, etc., 
with their families, are not infrequently placed in 
this dependent position, notwithstanding the trite 
apothegm, which says, ' it is better to be dependent 
on another for food than to live in his house' " 

Moreover, this system fosters family dissension. 
It requires an ideal family, under the strong guidance 
of an ideal head, to live in peace and harmony under 
this system. The writer above quoted, himself a 
Hindu who had long lived under the system, ex- 
pressed himself strongly upon the subject: "The 
millennium is not yet come.l Seven brothers living 
together with their wives and children, under one 
and the same paternal roof, cannot reasonably be 
expected to abide in a state of perfect harmony, so 
long as selfishness and incongruous tastes and inter- 
ests are continually working to sap the very founda- 
tion of friendliness and good-fellowship. Union is 
strength, but harmonious union, under the peculiar 
regime indicated above, is already a remarkable ex- 
ception in the present state of Hindu society. On 
careful inquiry it will be found that women are at 
the bottom of that mischievous discord which eats 
into the very vitals of domestic felicity. Separation, 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 251 

therefore, is the only means that promises to afford 
reHef from this social incubus; and to separation 
many families have now resorted, much after the 
fashion of the dominant race, with a view to the un- 
interrupted enjoyment of domestic happiness." 

Outside of the family itself, perhaps the two most 
important functionaries are the family priest and the 
astrologer. And of these two the latter is doubtless 
the more influential. It is well known, as I have 
written on another page, that Hindus are not only firm 
believers in astrology, but also the abject slaves of this 
science, falsely so-called, in all the affairs of life. It is 
wonderful how many events in the life of a family come 
within the realm of astrological guidance and control. 
From birth to death, most of the important transactions 
of life are controlled by astrological considerations. 

And with the astrologer we naturally join the sooth- 
sayer, who is frequently in demand to pronounce his 
incantations and utter his majitras, to remove all kinds 
of maladies and misfortune that may overtake members 
of the family. It is impossible for a Westerner to 
realize how much of the life of the Hindu, in the 
home and in society, is circumscribed by superstitions 
and directed by omens only. In the case of a man 
setting out upon a journey forty-three different things 



252 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

may happen which prognosticate good, and thirty-four 
which forebode evil. In household matters, the eye of 
the Hindu man, and very specially of the Hindu woman, 
is ever open to any one of a thousand indications that 
may reveal the will of the god or the demon as to 
conduct on the occasion. 

The position of women in the Hindu home is fun- 
damental, and much misunderstood by the people of 
the West. 

It is sadly true that woman in Hinduism has 
suffered, throughout the centuries, gross injustice, and 
has laboured under a thousand disabilities. But it does 
not follow from this, as those not familiar with Hindu 
lives are too apt to conclude, that woman is therefore 
a nonenity and a mere helpless drudge in the 
family. 

It is true that the great lawgiver, Manu, said, " No 
sacrifice is allowed to women apart from their husbands, 
no religious rite, no fasting; as far only as a wife 
honours her lord, so far is she exalted to heaven." 
In accordance with this, Hinduism has always consist- 
ently maintained that woman's well-being is entirely 
derived from her relationship to man. Her salvation 
is to be acquired through him. Her glory upon earth 
and her bliss in heaven and final emancipation depend 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 253 

upon her attitude to him, specially her obedience and 
devotion. 

It is also true, that in no stage of her existence can 
she be regarded as independent. She is dependent 
upon her father in childhood, the slave of her husband 
so long as he lives, and subject to her son during the 
days of her widowhood. Hinduism leaves her no 
opportunity, in this human existence, for liberty and 
independence. 

Hindu ideas of womanhood have always been low 
and unworthy. Rather than being considered a help- 
meet to man, she has ever been regarded as his tempter 
and seducer. The proverbs of India are full of these 
base insinuations concerning womanhood. " What is 
the chief gate to hell ? Woman." This is only one 
of a host of common sayings which brand the woman- 
hood of India with shame. 

It is for this same reason that woman has always 
been held unworthy of education. To educate a woman 
is compared to placing a knife in the hands of a monkey. 
The ignorance of the women of India to-day is not a 
matter of careless neglect, but rather of studied purpose 
to deny to them that which might change their relation- 
ship of subjection to man. 

One might suppose that in matters of religion, 



254 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

which is the peculiar consolation of the woman of 
India, a wide door of opportunity might be given to 
her. But here again Manu says, " Woman has no 
business with the texts of the Vedas; thus is the law 
fully settled. Having therefore no evidence of law, 
and no knowledge of expiatory texts, sinful woman 
must be as foul as falsehood itself ; and this is a fixed 
rule." 

There are texts which command kindness and re- 
spect to womanhood. But the above quotations repre- 
sent the tenor of Hindu literature. 

All of these represent the attitude of man toward 
woman in the home. In society, she has had no 
recognized place whatever, until the present, when, 
under the influence of western civilization, she is 
beginning to find a very limited scope for her legiti- 
mate activities. 

Nevertheless, in the seclusion of her own home, 
and inheriting the burden of this deep reproach 
heaped upon her from time immemorial by men, 
woman has created for herself a place of power in 
the Hindu home. Within this sanctuary she has 
erected her throne and reigns a queen. Has man 
kept her in ignorance ? She will therefore apply her- 
self the more assiduously to works of faith and piety. 



1 

of I' 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 255 

Has he heaped upon her abuse and called her " don- 
key " and " buffalo " ? She has repaid the insult by a 
loving devotion to her lord, such as has conquered his 
pride. Whether it be as wife or mother, the women 
of no other land wield greater power than the much- 
abused women of India. There is no woman on 
earth who reveals, at this present time, more devotion 
and attachment to her husband than does the Hindu 
wife. The old system of Sati, whereby a woman 
immolated herself on the funeral pyre of her dead 
husband, what was it? It was, indeed, a custom 
instituted by man, enforced by religious rewards and 
penalties, with a view to reveal the woman as the 
abject subject of her husband. And yet she glorified 
that custom and often transmuted it into the most 
sublime exhibition of wifely devotion. Hear the 
description of a Sati, given by a Hindu, the sub- 
ject of which was his own aunt. " My aunt," writes 
he, " was dressed in a red silk sari, with all the orna- 
ments on her person ; her forehead daubed with a 
very thick coat of sindnr, or vermilion ; her feet 
painted red with alta; she was chewing a mouthful 
of betel; and a bright lamp was burning before her. 
She was evidently wrapped in an ecstasy of devotion, 
earnest in all she did, quite calm and composed as if 



256 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

nothing important was to happen. In short, she was 
then at her matins, anxiously awaiting the hour when 
this mortal coil should be put off. My uncle was 
lying a corpse in the adjoining room. It appeared to 
me that all the women assembled were admiring the 
virtue and fortitude of my aunt. Some were licking 
the betel out of her mouth, some touching her fore- 
head, in order to have a little of the sindur, or vermil- 
ion; while not a few, falling before her feet, expressed 
a fond hope that they might possess a small particle 
of her virtue. ... In truth, she was evidently long- 
ing for the hour when her spirit and that of her hus- 
band should meet together and dwell in heaven. She 
had a tulsi mala (string of basil beads) in her right 
hand, which she was telling, and she seemed to enjoy 
the shouts of ' Hari, Hari-bole,' with perfect serenity 
of mind. We reached Nimtalla Ghat about twelve ; 
after staying there for about ten to fifteen minutes, 
sprinkling the holy water on the dead body, all pro- 
ceeded slowly to the Kultalla Ghat, about three miles 
north of Nimtalla. The dead body, wrapped in new 
clothes, being placed on the pyre, my aunt was de- 
sired to walk seven times round it, which she did 
while strewing flowers, cowries (shells), and parched 
rice on the ground. It struck me at the time that, at 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 257 

every successive circumambulation, her strength and 
presence of mind failed ; whereupon the Darogah 
(government representative) stepped forward once 
more and endeavoured, even at the last moment, to 
deter her from her fatal determination. But she, at 
the very threshold of ghastly death, in the last hour of 
expiring life, the fatal torch of Yama (Pluto) before 
her, calmly ascended the funeral pile and, lying down 
by the side of her husband with one hand under his 
head, and another on his breast, was heard to call in a 
half-suppressed voice, ' Hari, Hari,' — a sign of her 
firm belief in the reality of eternal beatitude. When 
she had thus laid herself on the funeral pyre, she was 
instantly covered, or rather choked, with dried wood, 
while some stout men with bamboos held and pressed 
down the pyre, which was by this time burning fiercely 
on all sides. A great shout of exultation then arose 
from the surrounding spectators, till both the dead 
and livinof bodies were converted into a handful of 
dust and ashes." ^ 

The custom of Sati has been outlawed ; but the 
spirit of Sati still dominates the womanly heart of 
the Hindu wife. 

It is this beautiful blending of piety and wifely de- 

1 " Hindus as They Are." 



2s8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

votion which has been the song of Hindu poets, and 
the admiration of the Hindu community, from time 
immemorial. It is true that a wife dare not utter the 
name of her husband. The name of the husband of a 
Hindu woman was Faith. When she came to read 
the Bible, she skipped this word every time it occurred 
in her reading. Why should she demean her lord by 
pronouncing publicly his sacred name ? 

And yet, when it comes to matters of religion, her 
stern piety and her religious devotion in the home are 
the most potent factor of the household ; and husband 
and father will bow to her supremacy in this realm. 
All public life and social functions have been proscribed 
to her ; therefore, does she see to it that in her narrow 
home sphere, both religiously and in the training of her 
children, her influence shall be supreme. And it is. 

It is here that the progress of Christianity is much 
impeded in India. A man is often found ready to 
change his faith, and to abide the consequence of the 
same. It is much more difficult for a woman to trans- 
fer her affection. But the conversion of the husband 
will not abide in permanence so long as the wife 
persists in her devotion to the ancestral faith. The 
writer has often seen illustrations of this supremacy 
of the influence of the woman. But it is not always 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 259 

SO. In 1823, a Brahman child was born in Calcutta. 
When six years old, he lighted, by torch, the funeral 
pyre of his dead father and living mother. When he 
attained manhood and had received a University edu- 
cation, he became a Christian. He was then not only 
renounced by his family, but his young wife also 
spurned and denied him. In accordance with her 
faith, she regarded and treated him as dead, per- 
formed his funeral rites, and, with shaven head, 
unjewelled body, and the widow's white cloth, 
mourned his decease as if he had actually died. 
For Christ's sake he had been an outcast from 
his people and was twice dead to his beloved. This 
experience has been repeated a thousand times in 
India in the case of Christian converts. But, in 
this particular instance, there was a remarkable de- 
nouement. The young man, deserted, divorced, and 
ceremonially buried by his wife, married a Christian 
woman, with whom he lived happily for many years. 
But after her death he returned to his first love and 
remarried the widow of his youth, who, in the mean- 
while, had relented and become a Christian. This 
was the experience of Professor Chuckerbuthy, of the 
General Assembly College, in Calcutta, who died in 
1 901. 



26o INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Marriage among Hindus differs in many respects 
from the same compact among western people. It 
is in no instance dependent upon the initiative of 
the contracting parties, if such the bride and the 
bridegroom may be called in India. Neither of 
them is a direct participant in the arranging of the 
contract. It is all done by the parents or the guard- 
ians of the boy and girl. It is entirely a business, 
and not a sentimental, affair. No other system 
would be possible under past and present conditions 
in India. In the case of infant marriages, the chil- 
dren concerned have, of course, neither knowledge 
of, nor special interest in, the matter. Even in cases 
where the future bride and bridegroom have attained 
puberty, no sentiment is ever allowed to enter, as a 
consideration, into the matter. The first question 
asked is whether the parties belong to the same 
caste and are connected by family ties. If so, the 
marriage may be a suitable one. It is strange that 
the children of brothers and sisters furnish the most 
suitable marriage relationships. But the children of 
brothers, or those of sisters, furnish a prohibited re- 
lationship ! It Is regarded as Improper for a boy to 
marry the daughter of his mother's sister, or of his 
father's brother, as it would be to marry his own 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 261 

sister. The marriage of those remotely connected by- 
blood is rarely considered ; the marriage of those not 
at all connected by blood relationship, never. 

The next matter of paramount importance is a 
consideration of the horoscope of the parties. Were 
the boy and girl born under astrological conditions 
which harmonize ; or does her horoscope so conflict 
with his that their dissonance would bring evil and 
misery to the family ? In the latter case, a marriage 
will be impossible, even though all other conditions 
are most inviting. 

Then follows the question of dowry; and here 
comes the great struggle. The girl's parents have 
to furnish, with the bride, a considerable dowry, 
whose size is directly related to the affluence of the 
boy's family, or to his education and prospects in 
life. The bickerings which take place in this mat- 
ter are most unseemly; and the marriage compact 
is degraded into a sordid, mercenary transaction. 
Fathers of girls involve themselves in debts which 
they can never clear, in order to marry their darlings 
to sons of high families of good connection. It is 
this difficulty of marrying daughters, save at an 
intolerable expense to the family, which largely ac- 
counts for the universal and keen disappointment 



262 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of Hindu families when they discover, at childbirth, 
that a daughter, and not a son, has been born. 

The contract having been sealed by definite re- 
ligious ceremony, the children wait until the girl 
attains puberty, which may take place at any time, 
from the age of ten to fourteen. Then the rites of 
consummation are performed, and they live together 
as man and wife. Until the marriage is consum- 
mated, it is the height of propriety that the parties 
shall be apart and strangers to each other. 

It is very often the case that there is much dis- 
parity between the age of man and wife. A married 
woman is supposed to belong to her lord for time 
and eternity. A widow is therefore ineligible for 
remarriage, even though her husband may have died 
when she was an infant. The man, on the other 
hand, may contract any number of marriages. The 
rapidity and the businesslike way with which he 
proceeds to arrange new nuptials after the death of 
his wife seems appalling to a Westerner! It mat- 
ters not how many wives he may have had, nor how 
old he has become, none but the very young is eli- 
gible to become his spouse. The consequence is 
that many men of matured, and even of old, age are 
wedded to mere girls. 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 263 

This is partly owing to the fact that the Hindu 
has not yet reahzed the need, or importance, of com- 
panionship between man and wife. This is very 
marked among the educated men of the Hindu com- 
munity. Not only by age, but also by educational 
and other qualifications, a wife is in no condition to 
be a sympathetic companion to her spouse. So that 
the relationship has, to them, little of mutuality in it. 

The lot of the Hindu widow is, proverbially, a 
hard one. She is despised and hated, even though 
she be but a child, because her husband's family 
persist in believing that his death was caused by 
her adverse horoscope. She suffers every obloquy 
in her husband's home, is deprived of her jewels, 
has her head shaven, and is clothed only with a 
coarse white cloth. Her fastings are long and se- 
vere, and she is not allowed to attend any festivity; 
for the presence of a widow would be deemed an 
evil omen and a curse. 

Moreover, she is the object of suspicion, and is fre- 
quently the prey of men's passions. It is a strange 
comment upon the religious perversity of a people 
of the tender domestic nature of Hindus, that they 
should deal with so much cruelty and such apparent 
indifference to the bereavement and suffering of the 



264 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

unfortunate widow who bears so tender a relation- 
ship to them. Religion has never wrought greater 
cruelty and injustice to any one than to the Hindu 
widow, specially to the child widow. And, notwith- 
standing the fact that these suffering ones are a 
great host in this land, there are few of their people 
who raise their voice in their defence or strive for 
their relief. 

The relationship of son-in-law and mother-in-law is 
always a strained one. The wife's mother may live 
with her under very decided limitations. It is not 
permitted to her to eat in the presence of her son-in- 
law, or to enter a room where he happens to be ! 

The situation is still worse between the daughter-in- 
law and the mother-in-law. The vernaculars of India 
abound in proverbs which illumine this relationship 
and reveal its strange character. The husband's 
mother apparently delights in nothing more than in 
exercising a cruel restraint over her son's wife. Noth- 
ing that the young woman can do will please her. 
And the husband too often sides with the older 
against the younger woman. When, however, the 
situation becomes intolerable to the wife, she takes 
French leave, and goes home to her parents. This 
soon brings her husband to terms ; and it is etiquette 



I! 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 265 

that he go and ask her to return, apologizing for the 
troubles that she has endured. And so the situation 
is improved, for a while, until another visit to her 
parents becomes imperative. It is natural enough 
that the mother-in-law should thus deal harshly with 
her daughter-in-law ; for is it not her revenge for the 
similar treatment which she received many years ago 
as daughter-in-law.? The real attitude of the Hindu 
toward his wife is doubtless more cordial than it ap- 
pears to a Westerner. He seems to delight in reveal- 
ing an indifference to her feelings and a contempt for 
her position. In the household, she is not permitted 
to eat with him ; she must wait upon his lordship and 
take the leavings of his meal. Upon a journey, it 
would be gross impropriety for her to walk by his 
side. Etiquette demands that she walk behind him 
at a respectable distance of, say, ten paces. 

The love of jewellery is a marked passion with the 
women of India. Millions of money are expended 
every year in the manufacture of female adorn- 
ments. And in this work there are more than four 
hundred thousand goldsmiths constantly employed. 
The wealth of a family, especially among the middle 
classes, is largely measured by the amount of jew- 
ellery which the women of the household possess. 



266 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

No one would grudge to these women a certain 
amount of these personal ornaments ; but when it 
becomes a mad craze to convert all their wealth 
into such vanity, and thus to render their wealth 
entirely unremunerative, it becomes a serious matter. 
The loading down of a woman or a girl with precious 
stones, gold, silver, or cheaper metal, adds anything 
but attractiveness to the person. It gives them a 
gross conception of personal attractiveness as well 
as a monetary value to beauty, which degrades the 
ideals of the country. When a woman's ears and 
nose, the crown of her head, her neck, arms, hands, 
waist, ankles, and toes are made to sparkle with the 
wealth of the family, and to bear down the frail body 
of the proud victim, they cease entirely to set off the 
personal beauty of the woman herself, and become 
rather a counter attraction ; and she is admired not 
for what she is, but for what she carries. 

Moreover, it is well known that these women are 
not satisfied, on public occasions, to wear their own 
jewels only; they borrow also those of their neigh- 
bours and shine with a borrowed light, which reflects 
a great deal more their vanity than their beauty. 
Many a time has the writer seen bright little Brahman 
girls carrying upon their person the combined glitter- 



I 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 267 

ing wealth of several families upon festive occasions. 
Add to this again the fact that there are thousands 
of women and children murdered in India every year 
for the sake of these personal ornaments which they 
flaunt before the public, and with which they tempt 
criminals. 

It is claimed that higher-class Hindus are cleaner 
in their personal habits than almost any other people 
on earth. This is probably true, so far as a multi- 
plicity of ablutions can make them. The religious 
washings of the Brahman are so frequent as to make 
him largely immune to epidemics of cholera and other 
filth diseases. And yet the lower classes of the 
people, in their homes and elsewhere, have little to 
boast of in the line of cleanliness. They all aspire 
to the weekly oil-bath, which is doubtless a whole- 
some thing in the heat of these tropics, where, through 
paucity of clothing, the skin is much exposed to the 
sun's rays. But oil has well-known attractive powers 
for dust, filth, and vermin too ! 

It must also be remembered that the Hindu is 
given much more to seeking ceremonial than sanitary 
cleanliness. It matters not how filthy the water may 
be, chemically ; if it be ceremonially clean, he uses it 
freely. If it be ceremonially polluting, it is eschewed. 



268 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

As one sees a village community make all possible 
uses of the village pond, he wonders why the whole 
village has not been swept away by disease. They 
are saved from their folly, doubtless, by the piercing, 
cleansing rays of the tropical sun. 

Hindu clothing is both beautiful and admirably 
suited to the tropical climate. The one cloth of the 
Hindu woman, which she so deftly winds around her 
body, and which is usually of bright colours, is per- 
haps the most exquisitely beautiful garment worn by 
any people. And this is altogether adequate to her 
needs. Unfortunately, western habits are now com- 
ing into vogue, and, in the case of men and women 
alike, the clothing of the West is partially supplanting 
that of the East. Nothing could be more unfortunate, 
from the standpoint of health, beauty, and economy. 

The culinary arrangements and the cuisine of the 
Hindu home are somewhat elaborate. Well-to-do 
Hindus, notwithstanding many caste restrictions, are 
somewhat epicurean in their tastes, and live well. As 
we have seen in the chapter on Caste, there are many 
limitations placed upon the selection of food, the 
method of its preparation, and of eating. Meat is 
entirely banned by the highest castes. None will 
touch the meat of the bovine kind, save the outcast 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 269 

Pariah. All are very particular in seeking seclusion 
for their meals. This is perhaps the reason why the 
Hindu home is, generally speaking, so much more 
secluded than that of other people. Hindus believe 
that fingers were made before knives, forks, and 
spoons. Consequently they eat their food entirely 
with their fingers. It seems offensive enough to 
Westerners. It has often taken away the writer's 
appetite as he has feasted with them, to have the 
cook dole out his rice to him with his bare hands ! 
They eat entirely with their right hand, and never 
touch the food with the left, reserving that hand for 
baser purposes. 

In wealthy families, household duties are performed 
by many servants. It is amusing to see how many 
servants are required in India to perform the ordinary 
functions of one able-bodied servant in the West. 
The services which a Hindu will demand from his 
menials are far greater than those of a healthy West- 
erner. His languid nature and general effeminacy 
make him entirely dependent upon his servant for 
most of the activities and amenities of life. Recently 
the writer heard a Hindu companion in a railway car 
call his servant at night from an adjoining car to come 
and turn the shade over the compartment lamp that 



270 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

he might have a nap ! A well-known writer, in de- 
scribing the life of a Babu, says : " The Khansama of 
a Babu is his most favourite servant. From the na- 
ture of his office he comes into closest contact with 
his master; he rubs his body with oil before bathing, 
and sometimes shampoos him, — a practice which 
gradually induces idle, effeminate habits and eventually 
greatly incapacitates a man for the duties of an active life. 
Indeed, to study the nature of a 'big native swell' 
is to study the character of a consummate Oriental 
epicure, immersed in a ceaseless round of pleasures, 
and hedged in by a body of unconscionable fellows, 
distinguished only for their flattery and servility." 
During times of sickness, the native doctor is in 
requisition. This functionary is not without his merits ; 
for it is a hereditary profession, and not a little medi- 
cal wisdom and experience have been transmitted from 
father to son down the centuries. Nevertheless, as 
compared with modern science, the ignorance of these 
men is woful, and the unnecessary loss of life through 
that ignorance is lamentable. Their pharmacy is as 
defective as many of their remedies are absurd and 
disgusting. The present government, by multiplying 
its hospitals and dispensaries, has done much to arrest 
disease and remove suffering. And yet the remedies 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 271 

do not reach one-tenth of the population. And many 
of the one-tenth are so suspicious of western science 
that in their extremity they will pass the well-equipped 
government hospital and its diplomaed attendants in 
order to consult the native doctor and to partake of 
his concoctions. One of the reasons for this prejudice 
is the largeness of the dose which the Indian doctor 
invariably supplies. How can the diminutive doses 
of the white man and his establishment remove im- 
portant difficulties and heal serious diseases? The 
writer has known not a few well-educated Indian 
Christians living under the shadow of a well-equipped 
missionary hospital which furnished its medicines free, 
sneak away a few streets beyond to consult the man 
who is a compound of a quack and an astrologer. 
And yet, doubtless, the new pharmacy of the West 
brings healing in its wings to millions of this people 
annually; and it is one of the causes for the rapid 
increase of the population. 

At childbirth, the barber's wife is always called. 
She is the midwife of India, and the poor Hindu wife 
who is about to become a mother is the victim of the 
ignorance and stupidity of this woman. It is no won- 
der that so many die in childbirth or survive only 
to become invalids through the remainder of their 



272 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

lives. To remove this serious evil, government is put- 
ting forth strenuous efforts to bring intelligent relief 
to the mothers of India. 

The entrance of death into a Hindu family brings, 
as elsewhere, inexpressible sorrow. The women of 
the family resign themselves to their grief, which is 
expressed by loud wailings, with beating of their 
breast and tearing their dishevelled hair. While pro- 
fessional wallers are rare, nevertheless friends and 
relatives congregate and add volume to the dirge of 
sorrow. The leading women mourners will often ex- 
press in weird chant and appropriate words their 
praises of the virtues and the beauties of the departed 
ones. The men of the household mourn in silence, as 
it is not fitting that the man should audibly express 
his sorrow in public. 

Hindus make immediate arrangements for burning 
or burial as soon as death has occurred; so that, 
usually, the funeral services are over within twelve or 
eighteen hours after death. This is desirable, because 
of the Hindu custom of fasting so long as a corpse 
remains in the house ; and is also necessary because 
of the speedy decomposition of the body in the tropics. 
It is also made possible by the fact that Hindus do 
not use cofiins. 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 273 

It is the custom of most of the higher-caste Hindus 
to cremate their dead ; while many of the lowest 
castes and outcasts resort to burial. Cremation would 
doubtless be the more sanitary method, if the fire were 
not so inadequate in many instances. The Hindu 
burning-ground is a place of ghastly and disgusting 
interest. 

Funeral ceremonies do not terminate with the burn- 
ing or with the burial of the body in Hinduism. The 
ritual connected with the dead, which is called 
Shradda, is, among the higher classes, a most elabo- 
rate and complicated one, and lasts, with intermis- 
sions, for a year. These are conducted with much 
effort by, and at great expense to, the oldest son of the 
family. And a great significance is attached to their 
rigid performance. It may be regarded as a part of 
the great ancestral worship of the East. 

The function of this ceremony is also kindred to 
that of Roman Catholicism, which, through prayer and 
offerings, seeks the release of souls from Purgatory. 
By this ritual, which involves also gifts to Brahmans 
and priests, the son makes more easy the pathway of 
the departed parent through the shades into the realms 
beyond, and relieves the departed soul of its encum- 
brances and facilitates its progress toward bliss. By 



274 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

some it is claimed that these ceremonies, when rightly- 
performed, render unnecessary his suffering in hell or 
his returning to this world for rebirth. It is more 
likely that the purpose is to reduce the suffering and 
to enhance the progress of the soul between this birth 
and the next. In any case, all orthodox Hindus 
regard the Shradda ceremonies as possessing great 
virtue and high importance. And this is one of the 
principal reasons why every Hindu man and woman 
is so eager for the birth of a son in their family. 
Without a son, who is there to relieve their soul from 
destruction, and to bring to them future peace and 
rest through the Shradda ceremony? Thus parents 
ever pray for male offspring ; and the greatest disap- 
pointment in the life of a Hindu woman is not to 
be able to present her lord a son to solace him in 
this life and to assist him through the valley of death. 
One of the questions asked by the dutiful son, as he 
performs this laborious ritual, is, — 

" O my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather ! 
Are you satisfied ? Are you satisfied ? We are satisfied." 

If any son, by the dutiful performance of offering 
and ritual here upon earth, can bring help and peace 
to his dead ancestors, the Hindu son may be expected 
to succeed. 



THE HOME LIFE OF HINDUS 275 

The following, taken from an ancient Sutra, is re- 
garded as a Hindu burial hymn : — 

" Open thy arms, O earth ! receive the dead 
With gentle pressure and with loving welcome. 
Enshroud him tenderly, even as a mother 
Folds her soft vestment round the child she loves. 
Soul of the dead, depart ! take thou the path — 
The ancient path by which our ancestors 
Have gone before thee ; thou shalt look upon 
The two kings, mighty Varuna and Yama, 
Delighting in oblations ; thou shalt meet 
The fathers and receive the recompense 
Of all thy stored-up offerings above. 
Leave thou thy sin and imperfection here ; 
Return unto thy home once more ; assume 
A glorious form." 



CHAPTER X 

KALI YUGA — India's pessimism* 

Many nations, during the period of their infancy 
and ignorance, have given to Time and its divisions 
the power and quaHties of life and have clothed them 
with moral purpose and attributes. Chronos was to 
the Greeks of old the god of time, in whose hands 
were the destinies of men. Even up to the present 
day not a few ignorant people of Christian lands are 
influenced, to some extent, by an inherited superstition 
about " lucky " and " unlucky " days. But I know of 
no land which is suffering more than India from tra- 
ditional, false, and injurious conceptions of chronol- 
ogy. Time is here endowed with life and enthroned 
among the gods. Sivan is " Maka-Kalan" the great 
incarnation of Time, and the mighty destroyer of all 
things. It is also said that "Time is a form of 
Vishnu." 

We are told that we are living in Kali yuga, and 
that we are subject to all the evil which is the per- 
manent characteristic of this iron age. I believe that 

^ This chapter is a modified form of a lecture delivered to Hindus. 

276 



I 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 277 

there are few things in India which so thoroughly 
influence the life, habits, and character of the people 
as do their many conceptions about chronology. And 
I am convinced that incalculable good would come to 
the country if all these old and exploded ideas were 
to give way to more rational ones — such as are in 
harmony with modern intelligence and civilization. 

Consider, then, the various aspects of the chronology 
which all but universally prevails in India in order that 
we may see wherein it touches the life and moulds the 
thought of educated and uneducated alike. 

I 

The Astounding Length of the Chronological 
System 

In ancient Vedic times there obtained here, so 
far as we can see, much more sober views of chro- 
nology than at present. It was much later that the 
imagination of Hindu writers took full wing and 
carried the people into the all but infinite reaches of 
Puranic chronology. One must wait for the elabora- 
tion of Vishnu Purana, for instance, in order to meet 
that apparent sobriety of mathematical detail which is 
utilized to add credibility to the most fantastic time 
system that imagination ever devised. 



278 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Christians of the West have doubtless erred on the 
side of excessive brevity in their theories and beliefs 
about the beginnings of history and especially in their 
attempt to locate the origin of the human race. Until 
recently, it was thought that our human progenitor, 
Adam, was created no more than sixty centuries ago, 
and that the whole history of mankind is consequently 
confined to that brief space of time. In the same way 
the practical mind of the West has pictured to itself 
the termination of human life and history upon earth 
at some not very remote date in the future. Science 
has already shown the error of the former, as history 
is likely to demonstrate the falsity of the latter theory. 

But India has, with much greater daring and with 
more of unreason, carried back many billions of years 
the origin of mankind and has painted vividly a future 
whose expanse is as the boundless sea. 

We are now, it is said, at the close of the first 
five thousand years of Kali yuga. And this same 
yuga, or epoch, has 427,000 years still in store for 
us and our descendants ! Before it arrived, the other 
three yugas — Kritka, Tretha, and Dwapara — had 
passed on ; and these, together, were equal to more 
than ten thousand divine years, or to nearly four 
million human years ! These four epochs equal a 



II 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 279 

total of 4,320,000 human years, and this is called a 
" maha-ynigar This in itself would stagger the prac- 
tical mind of the West. But it is only the very thresh- 
old of Hindu chronology ! There are seventy-one of 
these great epochs in 2^.^' Majtuvantkara'' or the period 
of one Manu, or human progenitor. And there are 
many of these Manus with their periods. For instance, 
there are fourteen of them required in order to cover 
the time called " Karpa'' or one day in the life of 
Brahma. And after Brahma has spent his modest 
day everything is destroyed and his godship spends 
an equal period in sleep and rest. Then begins 
another Brahmaic day, in which a new succession of 
Manus spend, with their progeny, their interminable 
epochs. And thus one series of epochs follows an- 
other, sandwiched in by equally long spaces of lifeless 
darkness. And this goes on until Brahma has com- 
pleted his divine life of one hundred years; and then 
comes the final dissolution. Having gone on as far 
as this, there is no reason why the imagination should 
rest at this point; and so Vishnu Purana, which, of 
course, is composed in praise of that god, claims that 
one day of Vishnu is equal to the whole life of 
Brahma ! 

No one can bring within the range of his thought 



28o INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

or imagination one tithe of the years, divine or human, 
which are included in this marvellous chronology. 
A billion years are but as a day to the Hindu mind. 

And if any one is anxious to know the exact place 
at which we have arrived in this chronological maze, 
the same Purana informs us that we are five thousand 
years advanced in the Kali yuga of " Varaha karpa^' or 
the first day in the second half of Brahma's life. And 
thus we are supposed to live not far (say a few billion 
years!) from the middle of the Hindu chronological 
system. One may better realize the length of the 
system if he remembers that we have yet to spend 
of the present Kali yuga alone more than seventy 
times the whole of the old Christian chronology from 
Adam to the present time ! And yet, as compared 
with the whole system described above. Kali yuga is 
less than one day in a thousand years. And that 
largely measures the difference between the imagina- 
tion of the West and the same developed faculty in 
the East! 

It is quite unnecessary to say that the prehistoric 
Manus of previous yugas are absolutely imaginary 
creatures, since history can tell us practically noth- 
ing about the head of our race, even in the present 
Hindu dispensation. There is not a line of history 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 281 

or of reliable tradition that will enable us to reach 
farther back than five or six thousand years in this 
quest for the origin of our race. There was, of 
course, a beginning of human life on earth ; and we 
may, just as we please, call the progenitor " Manu " 
or " Adam." But, according to the Hindu chrono- 
logical system, six thousand years only carries us 
just back into the last yuga, and is as but yesterday 
in the march of the divine aeons of the past. Cer- 
tainly, writers whose productions are unreliable as 
a guide to the events of the past century or two are 
only indenting upon their imagination when they 
descant upon the chronological data of the Puranas. 

One of the principal evils connected with this 
measureless time system is found in the fact that it 
helps to destroy the confidence of all intelligent 
men in the historicity of characters and events 
which would otherwise be worthy of our credence. 
For example, the question is asked whether such a 
man as Rama Chandra ever existed. We at once 
reply in the affirmative ; for does not the Ramayana 
dwell upon his exploits, and are there not other 
reasons for believing that such a hero lived in an- 
cient times in this land? 

And yet when the Puranas tell us that this same 



282 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Rama received his apotheosis and appeared as an 
incarnation of Vishnu in the Tretha yuga, say one 
or two millions of years ago, we are astounded at 
the credulity of those who could write such a state- 
ment as well as those who can accept it; and we 
are led to question whether, after all, Rama ever 
existed or is simply a poetic conception carried far 
away into an imaginary time. Thus the chronol- 
ogy of the land tends to cast a cloud of doubt and 
suspicion over all that is historical, traditional, or 
legendary in the literature of the people. 

Still greater than this is the unfortunate influence 
of such a system upon the people themselves, in 
helping to destroy any appreciation that they would 
otherwise have of historic perspective. It is well 
known that the people of India have throughout 
the ages been the most wanting in the ability to 
write and soberly to appreciate historic facts. 

They are great thinkers and wonderful metaphy- 
sicians, but they are not historians. The meagre 
history of India which has come down to us was 
not written by the people themselves. Not until 
recently, and then under the influence of western 
training, did any reliable book of history emanate 
from the brain and hand of a native of this land. 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 283 

All that we know of the ancient history of India 
comes to us in two ways. It is known indirectly 
through the language and literature and ancient in- 
scriptions of the past. Historians of to-day have to 
study the science of language, and especially the 
growth of the Sanscrit tongue ; and, through an in- 
timate knowledge of the same, they arrive approxi- 
mately at the time in which many of the most 
important books of the land have been written and 
at the dates of the events narrated in them. Or 
they may be helped, to some extent, to learn this 
history by a study of the teachings of the books 
themselves, which may indicate the time in which 
they were written. A few inscriptions and coins 
give the dates of certain reigns, which thus bring 
us directly and briefly into the correct era of cer- 
tain important events. 

But the bulk of the history of India comes 
through foreigners. At different periods in the his- 
tory of the land men of other nationalities visited 
India and then recorded their observations concern- 
ing the country and the people. The Greeks were 
great travellers and keen observers in ancient times. 
They came to India and left in their books such 
statements about the land as assist us to understand 



284 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

its condition at that period. Then the Chinese, in 
the early centuries of the Christian era, visited this 
land and recorded in their works much of interest 
about the social and religious condition of the 
people. Later, the Mohammedan conquest brought 
many foreigners into India, and some of the writers 
of Islam give us further insight into the affairs of 
the country. From the fifteenth century the Rom- 
ish missionaries have conveyed, through their re- 
ports to Rome, much of information concerning the 
people and their life. And thus the history of India 
has largely depended upon the keen and careful ob- 
servations and statements of men of other lands 
who came here for travel, trade, or religion. But 
Indians themselves have, at no time, contributed to 
this most important department of literature. We 
may search in vain for even one volume of reliable 
history out of the myriad tomes of embellished nar- 
ratives which have emanated from the fertile brains 
of the men of India. How shall we account for 
this strange and very striking fact ? It must be, in 
part, owing to the innate passion of India at all 
times for poetic embellishment and exaggeration. 
A cool, scientific, unadorned statement of a fact or 
of an event has never satisfied the soul of the chil- 



I 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 285 

dren of the tropics. Hence, the history of the past 
becomes legend, human heroes are painted as di- 
vine, and epochs and eras are lengthened out to 
almost eternal proportions. 

Now the most serious result of all this is that the 
people have come firmly to believe that these wild 
exaggerations, which were written by some dreamy 
poets of the past, are the sane and cool expressions 
of simple historic fact; and thus they have largely 
lost the true sense of historic perspective, are un- 
able to distinguish between fact and fancy, and are 
strangers to the lessons of the past. For it must 
be remembered that the teachings of former ages, 
and especially the life-lessons and character-influ- 
ences of those generations of men, have less and 
less of significance to us the farther we throw them 
back into the dim and hazy realm of the prehistoric 
and legendary. The near past, with its familiar 
voices and its heroes of real flesh and blood, brings 
to us an appeal to life and noble endeavour to 
which we are always glad to respond ; while the 
remote characters of myth and of legend neither im- 
press us with their reality nor inspire us to a higher 
and better life. 

And, in the same way, these immensely drawn-out 



286 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

aeons of the past make it impossible for those who 
behave in them rightly to appreciate the signifi- 
cance and importance of the present. One's pres- 
ence in the world and the value of his best activity 
for the world's good can mean something to him if 
he appreciate the fact that there is no great dis- 
tance to the very beginning of human history. 
Though his span of life is small, it nevertheless 
has a definite relationship to the whole of history, 
and there is some encouragement for a man to 
work for the good of his race. But this encourage- 
ment dwindles into nothingness when a man believes 
in those many aeons of human life, each seon being 
in itself an immense reach of billions of years. 

II 

The Cyclic Character of Hindu Chronology 

A very unique thing about this chronology is that 
it revolves in cycles. Each maha-yuga is composed 
of four yugas, and these are ever the same series 
and of the same character. We pass on through 
the long vista of Kritha, Treiha, Dwapara, and 
Kali only to begin once more on the same series; 
and thus forever we move in this four-arc circle 
without ever getting outside of it. It is claimed 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 287 

that this cycle of yugas has already revolved about 
twenty million times and will go on spinning twenty 
million times more, attaining nothing and going no- 
where. It is enough to make one dizzy to think of . 
this mighty chronological wheel, spending 4,320,000 
years for every one of its forty million revolutions, 
with nothing to vary the monotony of these ever 
recurring epochs ! 

The first question which one would naturally ask, 
after assuming the truth of this breathlessly long 
system, is whether it could forever return upon itself 
after this fashion. Is there no progress in time.'' Is 
it true, in this sense also, that *' there is nothing new 
under the sun " t While other people are refreshed 
by the sense that they are moving forward and up- 
ward in the fulfilment of some great destiny, are ever 
adding new increments to their wisdom, and are ris- 
ing higher upon "their dead selves" to ever nobler 
achievements, is it right that the people of this great 
land should be doomed to think that there is no per- 
manent advance for India, but that she alone must 
forever return whence she started and repeat the 
weary cycle of the past.? 

As a matter of fact, no people can be thus tied 
down to any mechanical order of time. Every race 



288 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

and nation is either making for progress or for de- 
generacy. It will never return to its old moorings. 
The past has told upon it. It has accumulated some 
wealth of knowledge, of experience, of character, 
which, as the centuries roll, brings it farther on in 
its career. It is true that a nation, like a man, may 
have lapses by which it may fall down a step or more 
in the ladder of its upward progress. But this can- 
not be a necessity of its nature or a relentless law of 
its being. 

This chronological system also accounts for much 
of the pessimism that pervades the minds and de- 
presses the heart of the people of India to-day. It 
is everywhere claimed that the best things of India 
were found in the remote past. But, you ask, will 
not the Sattia yuga — the golden age — return again. f* 
Oh, yes, it is next in the procession, we are told. But 
we must not forget that there are about 427,000 long 
years before this Kali yuga comes to an end. Even 
supposing that the doctrine of transmigration is true, 
and that the soul of man must pass through many 
reincarnations; who can be expected to hold on to 
courage and hope through nearly half a million years 
of dreary existence ? What India sorely needs to-day 
is a conviction that she is moving onward — that 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 289 

there is but one yuga in her calendar, and that that 
is the yuga of opportunity to rise to higher things. 
Thus alone can she be stimulated to her best efforts 
and most worthy activity. 

In this connection we must not forget another 
aspect of these changing and ever recurring ages of 
the puranas. Each yuga^ maha-yuga, and karpa is 
followed by a period of more or less complete de- 
struction. The achievements of each period are for- 
gotten, because its results are obliterated or consumed 
by a mighty cataclysm. And thus no gain acquired 
in any past age is available for the coming epoch. 
In this way, the whole idea of the puranic chronology 
is the most effective ever devised by man in any land 
to bring discouragement and despair into the heart 
of the people who live under it. Whether we look 
at the absurd length, the discouraging cycles, or the 
destructive cataclysms which are an essential part of 
the system, one and all bring in their train depres- 
sion, stagnation, and the spirit of reckless waste. 
While we recognize that this chronology is a natural 
product of the dreamy, patient soul of the East, the 
most important fact for us to remember is that it also 
perpetuates and accentuates the very evil which gave 
it birth. 



290 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

III 

The Moral Characteristics of the Hindu Time System 

This, doubtless, is the most striking feature of this 
chronology and gives it a larger influence than any- 
other in the thoughts and life of the people of this 
land. And I really believe that it is more deleterious 
in its influence upon the Hindu character than any- 
thing else connected with this system. 

According to this chronology, in its most elabo- 
rated form, every day, yea, every hour as well as 
every yuga, or epoch, has its peculiar moral character 
assigned to it. It is well known that the first era in 
the mahayuga is called Sattia yuga^ or the era of 
truth. During this period the cow of righteousness 
stands upon four legs, and all living beings are good, 
beautiful, and happy. This indeed is the golden age 
of Hinduism. But, alas, its last departure was some 
four million years ago, and it will not return, they say, 
for nearly half a million years more. Then it is fol- 
lowed by "the silver age," in which the cow is said 
to stand on three legs only ! In other words, virtue 
and happiness have suffered diminution, and evil and 
misery have crept into human life. If in the previous 
age asceticism was the crowning glory, in this second 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 291 

age knowledge is supreme. This is said to be the 
time of Rama's exploits and trials. 

We then come into the bronze era, the so-called 
period of Krishna's incarnation and "goings." The 
poor cow of virtue has suffered still further limita- 
tions and has but two legs to stand upon in this 
yuga ! This is called the age of sacrifice — the time 
when sacrifice has preeminence as a source of power 
in salvation. 

Then we come down to the iron age in which we 
have the supposed infelicity to live. This is the 
time of evil, par excellence, in which the cow has been 
reduced to the last extremity and has to stand upon 
one leg ! The gradual deterioration of the ages finds 
here its culmination. Of this fourth age there is a 
description in the Vishnu-purana, which is translated 
as follows : — 

" Hear what will happen in the kali yuga. 
The usages and institutes of caste, of order and rank, 

will not prevail, 
Nor yet the precepts of the triple Veda. 
Religion will consist in wasting wealth, 
In fasting and performing penances 
At will ; the man who owns most property, 
And lavishly distributes it, will gain 
Dominion over others ; noble rank 



292 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Will give no claim to lordship ; self-willed women 

Will seek their pleasure, and ambitious men 

Fix all their hopes on riches gained by fraud. 

The women will be fickle and desert 

Their beggared husbands, loving them alone 

Who give them money. Kings, instead of guarding, 

Will rob their subjects, and abstract the wealth 

Of merchants, under plea of raising taxes. 

Then in the world's last age the rights of men 

Will be confused, no property be safe, 

No joy and no prosperity be lasting." 

" Women will bear children at the age of five, six, 
or seven, and men beget them when they are eight, 
nine, or ten. Gray hair will appear when a person is 
but twelve years of age, and the duration of life for 
men will only be twenty years." 

Now the idea in all this is that each yuga, or era, 
has its fixed character. Rather than that the men 
of 2i yuga should impart their character to the age in 
which they live, the age itself has a pronounced moral 
bent which is transferred to all who happen to live 
under it. Thus we see in the theory a perversion 
and contradiction of the facts; for an ethical charac- 
ter is assigned to days and hours rather than to moral 
beings, who alone are capable of such values. 

Therefore, for a thorough consideration of the 



^1 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 293 

system as a whole, it is only necessary that we con- 
sider the character assigned to this evil age in which 
we live. There is nothing more deeply wrought into 
the consciousness of the people of this land at the 
present time than the conviction that this time in 
which we live is indeed Kali yuga, that it is irre- 
mediably bad, and that it taints with its own character 
everything that has life. 

Pandit Natesa Sastri remarks : " In India when 
a young boy or girl happens to break, in eating or 
dress, the orthodox rules of caste, his or her parents 
will say, ' Oh ! it is all the result of the Kali yuga.' 
If a Hindu becomes a convert to any other religion, 
or if any atrocious act is committed, the Hindu will 
observe, ' Oh ! it is the ripening of Kali.' Every 
deviation from the established custom, every vice, 
every crime, in fact, everything wicked, is set down 
by the ordinary Hindu to the ascending power of 
the Lord of the Kali age." 

Nor is this merely a superstition of the ignorant. 
We remember how, in the year 1899, when it was 
said that great calamities were due, the Dewan of 
Mysore promised to place the matter of preparing 
for these calamities before the Maharajah. For was 
it not the five thousandth year of Kali yuga ? 



294 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Now it does not occur to one in ten thousand to 
ask whether this is really so. It is accepted as a 
dogma which must not be questioned; and all the 
evil and falsehood which this involves must be a 
dread of the soul and a bondage of the mind whether 
it become a fact of experience or not. 

But, accepting the universally received belief of 
India that Kali yuga is now five thousand and eight 
years old, who can tell us what was the condition of 
things in India before this ? Everything before that 
time is absolutely prehistoric. The best authorities, 
and indeed all authorities, claim that the Vedas were 
first sung, that the Rishis of India came into exist- 
ence, that the Sanscrit tongue and the Indian Aryans 
who spoke it and the religion of Hinduism which 
they brought or cultivated, — all of these find their 
origin during the last five thousand years. All the 
evidences of history unite to assure us that there is 
practically nothing existing at the present time in 
this land which is not in some way the child of 
these last fifty centuries of Kali yuga. Who, then, 
can dogmatically tell us that these centuries have 
been better or worse than the eras preceding them ? 
We know no more about the Dwapara and the other 
previous eras, if any such ever existed, than we know 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 295 

about the inhabitants of other planets, if such there 
be. It is therefore futile, yea more, thoroughly 
wicked, to impose upon the people a chronological 
system which is so pessimistic and hopeless in its 
tenor as this. 

But even looking back through the probably four 
thousand years which embrace all that we really 
know about India, what do we see to encourage this 
pessimistic view of our era? 

Let it not be assumed that the people of India 
in the days of the Rishis of old were purer in life 
or loftier in ideals than many who live in India 
to-day. It is true that such evils as caste, infant 
marriage, and many similar customs did not exist 
at all in Vedic days. But it is also true that not a 
few serious evils of ancient times, such as drunken- 
ness, human sacrifice, and slavery, do not generally 
exist in India to-day. 

But if we desire to know what the condition of 
the present time is, we should compare this begin- 
ning of the twentieth with the beginning of the 
eighteenth century and see what progress has been 
achieved. Durinor the last two centuries number- 
less crimes and evils have been swept away. I need 
only mention such enormities as thuggee, sattee, infant 



296 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

murder, etc., all of which were thriving even a 
hundred years ago, but which are now things of 
the past. And what shall I say of a horde of 
other customs that have cursed the land, such as 
infant marriage, thevathasis, caste, all of which are 
beginning to yield to the enlightened thought of the 
present and will soon be driven out of the country 1 

I need not add, however, that all of these wonder- 
ful changes and progress have not come out of 
Hinduism. They have been carried out and are 
progressing in the teeth of constant opposition from 
the orthodox defenders of the ancestral faith. It 
is the new light of the West that has dawned upon 
India and has brought to it a new era. Even while 
the people are insisting that they are in the midst 
of Kali yuga and are confident that the days are 
" out of joint," they are nevertheless witnessing such 
a revolution in religious, social, and intellectual life 
all around them that any people who were not 
under the blind spell of the Hindu time-fallacy 
would rejoice with exceeding joy to see it. 

And herein do we find one of the great evils 
of this chronology : It incapacitates the people to 
accept or to appreciate any blessing which has or 
may come to them through religious and social 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 297 

advancement. They think that everything must be 
bad, as a matter of course, in Kali yuga, and so 
nothing can appear good to them, however benefi- 
cent and beautiful it may be. 

This conviction that things are now out of joint, 
and the settled purpose that all will continue an 
unmixed programme of evil, has more to do with 
the sad and universal pessimism of India than any- 
thing else of which I know. It crushes all buoyancy 
and cheer out of the mind and rests like a pall upon 
every future prospect. 

Then this expectation for the future robs men of 
any ambition to remedy present evils. For, they 
naturally will say, " Why flee from ills which are 
pressing upon us and which by experience we have 
learned to endure, if it be only to contract greater 
troubles in their stead ; for freedom from evil is an 
impossibility in this age ? " Is it not, to a very con- 
siderable extent, the reason why there are so few 
whole-hearted reformers in India? Why should a 
man seek, at the risk of opprobrium and enmity, to 
root out of the country some accursed custom if his 
inherited belief in the inherent badness of the present 
era is still with him ? He must feel that all his efforts 
will be worse than vain ; for even if he and others may 



298 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

succeed in overcoming this custom, it will be only to 
give room to another that may be worse. Hence the 
universal apathy in the face of crying evils and damning 
customs ; hence also the helpless " cui bono ? " to every 
effort of others to help the land out of the deep pits of 
injustice and ancient ills. 

Out of this belief comes another equally portentous 
danger, viz. that of easily yielding to the temptations 
of the time, and of a readiness to participate in the 
common sins of the day. For, say many, are not these 
immoralities and evils an integral part of the time; 
and, if so, what harm is there in our partaking of them ? 
Or, at least, is it not our best interest to harmonize 
ourselves with the essentially evil environment of our 
age rather than vainly to combat the sins of the day 
and to strive to no purpose to remove them } 

And thus a belief in the divine order and purpose of 
the evil of our time and in the impossibility of chang- 
ing the character of our age becomes one of the most 
prolific sources of sin, of weakness, and of moral and 
spiritual apathy in the land to-day. Do not many sin 
without fear and with increasing facility because they 
think it is the only life that best harmonizes with this 
Kali yuga in which they live ? 

Much of this conception of time is connected with 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 299 

the all but universal belief of the people in astrology. 
In India, astrology is still fed by popular ignorance and 
superstition, and continues to rule with an iron rod in 
this last stronghold among the nations of the earth. 
It would seem as if it controlled the conduct of in- 
dividuals, of families, and of society in general. It 
claims that for one to be born under the dominant 
influence, or spell, of one of the heavenly bodies is for 
him to be its slave ever afterwards. And thus the life 
of every human being is said to be largely controlled 
by certain planets and constellations, some of which 
are malign, and some benign in their character and 
influence. 

For it must be remembered that it is not only the 
yugas that are possessed of moral attributes ; even 
years, months, days, and hours are also classified as 
good and bad, auspicious and inauspicious. For one 
to do a thing this month is auspicious, while on the 
next month it will be the reverse. 

In the same manner, almost every human activity 
has its "lucky" and "unlucky" times — occasions 
when effort is much less, or more safe or valuable, than 
at other times. For instance, the Hindu is warned 
against going eastward, Mondays and Saturdays ; 
northward, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; westward, 



300 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Fridays and Sundays ; and southward, Thursdays. 
This, we are told, is because Siva's trident is turned 
against those points of the compass on those particular 
days, and one would therefore be in danger of being 
transfixed by this divine weapon ! 

Then a man must not begin any important work on 
Rahu-kalam. This inauspicious time covers an hour 
and a half of each day of the week and is at a different 
hour every day. The only safe hour is from 6 to 7.30 
each morning. That hour is free from the influence 
of Rahu, and is therefore auspicious. And what is 
Rahu ? It is not a planet at all, as was thought years 
ago; nor is it a mighty snake which periodically 
swallows the sun or moon. It is merely the ascending 
node in astronomy wherein alone the eclipses can take 
place. And yet this imaginary monster has a very 
real place in the life of this great people, and the foolish 
dread of it converts a period daily into an inauspicious 
occasion for important effort. 

I will present only one other illustration with a view 
to showing how extensively this moral attribute of time 
is ascribed and emphasized in the serious affairs of life 
in India. For instance, when a man is engaged in the 
performance of religious duties, it is regarded as of 
supreme moment that he know when certain acts are 



KALI YUGA — INDIA'S PESSIMISM 301 

of no merit, or, on the other hand, of special merit. 
Now, there is a regular code of rules for this special 
purpose. By observing these rules carefully one may 
accumulate religious merit or power with the gods 
beyond any one who does not observe them. We are 
told that a rupee contributed in charity during the time 
of an eclipse, or at the time when the new moon falls 
upon Monday, brings as much merit to the contributor, 
with the gods, as an offering of one thousand rupees 
at any ordinary time. Who, then, would not choose 
the right time for his religious activity if time alone is 
the element which adds value to it, and if motive has 
evidently so little of importance in giving quality or 
value to our efforts in the religious life ? 



CHAPTER XI 

ISLAM IN INDIA 

There are sixty-five million Mohammedans in 
India. This constitutes more than one-fifth of the 
total population, and is considerably larger than the 
whole population of the Turkish Empire. There are 
now under the British Empire more Mohammedans 
than under any other government in modern, or in 
earlier, times. For at least ninety-five millions of the 
followers of the Prophet of Mecca are prospering to- 
day under the ^gis of Great Britain; which is prob- 
ably five millions in excess of the Christian population 
of the same empire. This is a significant fact. 

And this Islamic population in India is growing, 
too. During the last decade it increased by 9.1 per 
cent, while the population of India, as a whole, in- 
creased only by 1.9 per cent. 

Of the Mohammedans of India, only a small portion 

are descended from the Mussulmans of the West; 

while the remainder are the results of conversions 

from Hinduism. 

302 



ISLAM IN INDIA 305 

This population is scattered all over India, though 
North India is the home of the majority of them. 
Bengal, also, has a large Mohammedan element in 
its population. It is that part of the country where 
Islam has gathered in the largest number of converts ; 
for, of the people of that Presidency, more than one- 
third (25,264,342) are Mussulmans. And in certain 
portions of East Bengal the Mohammedans are in the 
large majority. 

In South India, too, there is a fair representation 

of the members of this faith. One can hardly pass 

through any section of the country without seeing 

and recognizing them by their physiognomy, costume, 

or customs. 

I 

The History of Islam hi India 

It is nearly twelve hundred years since the first 
military expedition of this triumphant faith entered 
this land. It is an interesting fact that the first 
attack of Islam (711 a.d.) upon India almost syn- 
chronizes with the end of the millennium of Bud- 
dhistic rule in India. Thus the incoming of the 
new Hinduism under Sankaracharyar almost coin- 
cides with the first onslaught of the western hordes of 
the Arabian Prophet upon the strongholds of India. 



3o6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

It was a pure conquest of the sword which gave to 
Mohammed in India, as in other lands, a place and 
a possession. And those early days of Mohammedan 
triumph are, in the main, a record of cruel butchery 
and of widespread massacre. They fulfilled, to the 
letter, the command of the founder of their faith, 
which says : " When ye encounter the unbelievers, 
strike off their heads, until ye have made a great 
slaughter among them ; and bind them in bonds ; 
and either give them a free dismission afterwards, or 
exact a ransom; until the war shall have laid down 
its arms. This shall ye do." (Quran (Koran), xlviii. 

4, 5.) 

The fanaticism and bigotry of that people carried 

triumph everywhere ; and their triumph meant to 
every Hindu the acceptance of the sword, the Quran, 
or tribute. For some centuries, indeed, the fortunes 
of Islam in India wavered, and its undisputed sway 
was not recognized until the time of Baber, the dis- 
tinguished founder of the great Mogul Empire in the 
sixteenth century. It is also true that, among the 
mild and patient population of this land, the spirit 
of that militant faith gradually softened until the era 
of Akbar the Great — a ruler who was not only illus- 
trious as a lawgiver, but also was justly celebrated 



ISLAM IN INDIA 307 

for his cosmopolitanism and religious toleration. He 
was succeeded by another great name, Shah Jehan, a 
man of wonderful administrative powers, but one of 
narrow sympathies and occasionally given to cruel 
bigotry. And yet, if he did not possess the graces for 
a noble character, he adorned his realm with religious 
edifices which still stand unrivalled in their exquisite 
beauty. 

The cruel Aurangzeeb practically closed the Mogul 
dynasty by his weakness, bloodthirstiness, and uncom- 
promising bigotry. 

It is strange that during the centuries of cruel do- 
minion, of uncompromising fanaticism, and of re- 
ligious intolerance, the whole population of the land 
was not absorbed into Islam. But the Mogul Empire 
passed away. And, while it left a strong impression 
on the country as a whole, and affected somewhat the 
faiths of this land and left marvellous monuments of 
architectural beauty, it did not seriously change the 
undercurrents of the life of the whole people. 

II 

The Prese7it Condition of this Faith in India 

Like all other faiths in this peninsula, Islam is 
accepted and practised in all degrees of purity, from 



3o8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

the orthodox worship, conducted in the grand and 
beautiful mosques of Delhi and Agra, to the grovel- 
ling, superstitious, heathenish ceremonies which ob- 
tain among, and which constitute the religious pabu- 
lum of, the masses of Islam in remote villages and 
in distant sections of the land. 

Generally speaking, the religion of Mohammed is 
not calculated to appeal to the highly poetic mind of 
India. It is too severe and prosaic in its character. 
The mind of India delights in mystical elaborations 
and in the multiplication of fanciful incarnations and 
other divine manifestations. The Allah of Islam is 
almost as remote and as unknowable a deity as is 
the Brahm of the Vedantist. But in the absence of 
a personal god the Vedantist and Hindus in general 
have built up a system of numberless incarnations 
which " play " upon the imagination of the votaries 
and give ample scope to the remarkably poetic 
genius of this people. 

Mohammedanism has nothing of the kind ; it denies 
even the possibility of divine "descent," and its 
animus throughout the centuries has been one of 
antagonism to the incarnation doctrine of other 
faiths. 

The Quran is largely wanting in the tropical 



ISLAM IN INDIA 309 

warmth and legendary lore which is such a resource 
and comfort to the Indian mind, and which therefore 
abounds in the sacred writings of the Brahmans. 

Doubtless, the simplicity and intelligibility of its 
creed — one God, one prophet, one book — commends 
Mohammedanism to the minds of many. But sim- 
plicity is not a foible of the religious mind of India. 
It has always craved the complex, the mystical, and 
the unfathomable. It delights in inconsistencies, 
and indulges freely in the irreconcilable mysteries of 
faith. Hinduism, being the child of the Hindu mind, 
abounds in tropical exuberance of spiritual exercise 
and " amusements," which seem childish and inane to 
all other people. 

The teaching of Mohammed has, therefore, very 
little that can appeal with power, carry conviction, and 
bring contentment to the people of India. 

In nothing, perhaps, is this more manifestly marked 
than in the conception of the deity above referred to. 
Islam is a most uncompromising form of Unitarianism. 
It is bitterly opposed to any doctrine which brings 
God down to men and renders Him intelligible to the 
common mind. It denies the possibility of the divine 
putting on human, or any other, nature. 

Hinduism, on the other hand, is the very antithesis 



3IO INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of all this. At first, this was not so. But its rigid 
pantheism gradually necessitated manifestations of the 
divine, in order that faith and devotion might be made 
possible. And, in later centuries, the doctrine of 
incarnation was accepted as a haven of rest to the 
Hindu mind and soon became a wild passion of its 
soul. There is no other people on earth who have 
carried the doctrine of incarnation {Avalar) to such 
excess of imaginings as to create such abundantly gro- 
tesque and fanciful appearances of their many divini- 
ties. Normally, then, the Mohammedan faith, at its 
very core, must be unsatisfying and even repulsive to 
the tropical Hindu mind. It was brought here at the 
point of the sword ; and, for centuries, it was the faith 
of a ruling power whose custom was to tax heavily all 
people who did not conform, outwardly at least, to the 
State religion. 

After Islam had become established and secure in 
its success in India, when it could relax its grip upon 
the sword and relinquish something of the spirit of 
intolerance which characterized it, it had to meet and 
cope with a greater foe than that of the battle-field. 
Hinduism has always exercised a great benumbing 
influence upon all faiths which have come into contact 
and conflict with it. It has insinuated itself into the 



ISLAM IN INDIA 311 

mind of the conquerors and laid its palsied hand upon 
every department of religious thought and life. So 
that, after a few centuries of prosperity in India, Islam 
began to forget its narrow bigotry and uncompromis- 
ing severity and fraternized more or less with the 
religion of the country. Little by little a latitudina- 
rianism crept in, which found its culmination in that 
remarkable man, Akbar the Great, who entertained 
the teachers of all faiths and encouraged a fearless 
discussion of their respective merits. Dr. Wherry 
writes : " The tolerance of Akbar, who not only re- 
moved the poll-tax from all his non-Moslem subjects, 
but who established a sort of parliament of religions, 
inviting Brahmans, Persian Sufis, Parsee fire-worship- 
pers, and Jesuit priests to freely discuss in his pres- 
ence the special tenets of their faith and practice, was 
remarkable. He went farther, and promulgated an 
eclectic creed of his own and constituted himself a sort 
of priest-king in which his own dictum should override 
everything excepting the letter of the Quran. His 
own creed is set forth in the following words of India's 
greatest poet, Abul Fazl : — 

"O God, in every temple I see those who see thee, and, in every 
tongue that is spoken, thou art praised. 
Polytheism and Islam grope after thee, 
Each religion says, 'Thou art one, without equal,' 



312 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Be it mosque, men murmur holy prayer; or church, the bells ring, 

for love of thee ; 
Awhile I frequent the Christian cloister, anon the mosque : 
But thee only I seek from fane to fane. 
Thine elect know naught of heresy or orthodoxy, whereof neither 

stands behind the screen of thy truth. 
Heresy to the heretic, — dogma to the orthodox, — 
But the dust of the rose-petal belongs to the heart of the perfume 

seller." ^ 



This religious cosmopolitanism developed into what 
has been called an " Eclectic Pantheism," which wel- 
comed all men and satisfied no one. 

Even though Aurangzeeb tried to stem this tide of 
liberalism and to rehabilitate the intolerance and 
cruelty of ancient Islam, his effort was not only unsuc- 
cessful, but was partly instrumental in bringing on the 
downfall of the Empire. And the faith of Mohammed 
in India has revealed, ever since, the sickly pallor and 
want of vigour which tropical life and contact with 
Hinduism necessarily entail. 

When the government of this land ceased to be 
Mohammedan, and the sceptre passed into the hands 
of the British, whose glory it has been, for centuries, 
to protect its subjects from the bloody hand of intoler- 
ance and to vouchsafe unto all not only the blessed 
boon of Pax Britannica, but also the inexpressible 

^ " Islam and Christianity," p. 68. 



ISLAM IN INDIA 313 

right and privilege of religious liberty, — then passed 
away, never to return, we hope, from this motherland 
of tolerance, the ghastly sceptre of bigotry and fanati- 
cism. And thus Islam ceased to be enforced and 
propagated by the strong arm of law and by the pointed 
argument of sword and spear of the legions. It has, 
since then, enjoyed in this land a free and an open 
field for the exercise of its powers of persuasion. But 
its increase has not been marked. And what there 
has been of progress has been owing to its other char- 
acteristics, which we will mention later. 

Thus the faith of the Arabian prophet has lost, in 
India, not only its vigour, but also its prestige and 
purity, by contact with the lower faiths of the land, 
especially with the ancestral faith of India. From that 
religion it has taken unto itself many of the base 
superstitions, and not a few of the idolatrous practices, 
which have characterized it. 

Indeed, the great mass of the converts from Hin- 
duism, and their descendants, have had but a distorted 
conception of the lofty faith of Mohammed, which they 
have unequally yoked with their ancient superstitions 
and errors. 

The Indian census of 1901 tells us how the pure 
monotheism of Mohammed has been debased by con- 



314 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

tact with worship at human shrines : " We have seen 
in the case of Hinduism that the beUef in one supreme 
God, in whom are vested all ultimate powers, is not 
incompatible with the belief in Supernatural Beings 
who exercise considerable influence over worldly affairs, 
and whose influence may be obtained or averted by 
certain ceremonies. Similarly, in the case of Islam, 
while the masses have, on the whole, a clearer idea of 
the unity and omnipotence of God than the ordinary 
Hindu has, they also have a firm belief in the value of 
offerings at certain holy places for obtaining temporal 
blessings. Thus the shrine of Saiyad Salar, at Bah- 
raich, is resorted to, both by Hindus and Mussulmans, 
if a wife is childless, or if family quarrels cannot be 
composed. Diseases may be cured by a visit to the 
shrine of Shaik Saddo, at Amroha in Moradabad; 
while for help in legal difficulties Shah Mina's dargah 
at Lucknow is renowned. Each of these has its 
appropriate offering, — a long embroidered flag for 
the first, a cock for the second, and a piece of cloth 
for the third. Other celebrated shrines are those of 
Bahauddin Madar Shah at Nakkanpur in the Cawn- 
pore district, and of Ala-uddin Sabir at Piran Kaliar 
in Saharanpur." The same writer, in his report con- 
cerning Bengal, says : " The unreformed Mohamme- 



ISLAM IN INDIA 315 

dans of the lower and uneducated classes are deeply 
infected with Hindu superstitions, and their knowl- 
edge of the faith they profess seldom extends beyond 
the three cardinal doctrines of the Unity of God, the 
mission of Mohammed, and the truth of the Quran ; 
and they have a very faint idea of the differences be- 
tween their religion and that of the Hindus. Some- 
times they believe that they are descended from Abel 
(Habil), while the Hindus owe their origin to Cain 
(Kabil). Kabil, they say, killed Habil and dug a 
grave for him with a crow's beak." 

Before the recent crusade against idolatry it was 
the regular practice of low-class Mohammedans to 
join in the Durga Puja and other Hindu religious 
festivals, and although they have been purged of 
many superstitions, many still remain. In par- 
ticular, they are very careful about omens and au- 
spicious days. Dates for weddings are often fixed 
after consulting a Hindu astrologer; bamboos are 
not cut, nor the building of new houses commenced, 
on certain days of the week ; and journeys are often 
undertaken only after referring to the Hindu alma- 
nac to see if the proposed day is auspicious. When 
disease is prevalent, Sitala and Rakshya Kali are 
worshipped. Dharmaraj, Manasa, Bishahari, are 



3i6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

also venerated by many ignorant Mohammedans. 
Sasthi is worshipped when a child is born. Even 
now, in some parts of Bengal, they observe the 
Durga Puga and buy new clothes for the festival, 
like the Hindus. "Apart from Hindu superstitions, 
there are certain forms of worship common amongst 
Mohammedans which are not based on the Quran. 
The most common of these is the adoration of de- 
parted Pirs!' 

In Rajputana, the Mohammedans of local origin 
"still retain their ancient Hindu customs and ideas. 
The local saints and deities are regularly wor- 
shipped, the Brahman officiates at all family cere- 
monials side by side with the Mussulman priest, 
and, if in matters of creed they are Mohammedans, 
in matters of form they are Hindus." 

In Baluchistan, we are told of the Mohammedan 
that "his practice is, to say the least of it, un- 
Islamic. Though he repeats every day that there 
is one God only who is worthy of worship, he 
almost invariably prefers to worship some saint or 
tomb. The Saints, or Pirs, in fact, are invested 
with all the attributes of God. It is the Saint who 
can avert calamity, cure disease, procure children 
for the childless, bless the efforts of the hunter, or 



ISLAM IN INDIA 317 

even improve the circumstances of the dead. The 
underlying feeling seems to be that man is too sin- 
ful to approach God direct, and therefore the inter- 
vention of some one worthy must be sought." 

In South India, also, Hindus and Mohammedans 
fraternize not a little, especially in the religious 
festivities. Mohammedans do not hesitate, under 
certain conditions, to bring offerings to particular 
Hindu shrines. And it is a very common thing to 
see Hindus pay their respects to Mohammedan 
fakirs. The Mohurram, in South India, is partici- 
pated in, at least in its festive aspects, by multi- 
tudes of Hindus. Many Mohammedans are feeling 
keenly the degradation of this contact. A well- 
known Mussulman writer moans over the situation 
in the following words : — 

" The baneful influence that Hindu customs have 
had on Mussulmans is painful to read of. Many a 
Hindu ceremonial has been incorporated by the 
followers of the Prophet. The marriage ceremonies, 
instead of keeping to the simple form prescribed by 
the Quran, have been greatly elaborated, and in- 
clude processions. Even in religious matters, Hindu 
and Mussulman practices have become curiously 
blended. Hindus take a leading part in the cele- 



3i8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

bration of Mohurram. Passages from the Quran 
are sometimes chanted in the Hindu fashion; Mo- 
hammedan women of the lower classes break cocoa- 
nuts at Hindu temples in fulfilment of vows. 
Strangest of all, there is said to be a Hindu temple 
at a village near Trichinopoly which is sacred to 
a goddess called the Mussulmans' lady, who is said 
to be the wife of the Hindu god Ranganatha at 
Srirangam. These are some of the sad features 
which the census report has brought to light. 
They tend to show that, except in a few dead for- 
malities, the life of Mussulmans in South India is 
nothing different from that of the Hindus. In 
many cases the followers of the Arabian prophet 
would seem to have forgotten even the root prin- 
ciples of their religion — the unity of God, the 
formless, and the unincarnate. This fact alone is 
more than enough to fill the mind of the true 
Mussulman with anxious concern with regard to the 
future prospects of Islam in this country. His 
pious soul can find no rest with the view before 
him of hundreds and thousands of his coreligionists 
sunk deep in the degrading practices of the heathen 
around." 

In this connection it should not be forgotten that 



ISLAM IN INDIA 319 

the Sikh faith in North India is really a com- 
promise between these two faiths. Its founder, 
Nanak Shah, possessed the very laudable ambition 
of producing a religion possessed of the best ele- 
ments of both of these faiths. And thouoh the 
more than two millions of his present followers 
have drifted very much toward Hinduism, which is 
the drift of all things in this land, and are hardly 
to be distinguished from their neighbours in creed 
and custom, yet the religion stands as a testimony 
to the mutual influence of these two faiths. 

Nor should one forget what is now going on on 
this line among Hindus. Dr. Grierson tells us, in 
his recent interesting lecture, that " Allah the 
God of the Mussulman — the God of the Jews and 
ourselves — has Himself been admitted to the 
Hindu pantheon, together with His prophet, and a 
new section of the never completed Hindu bible, 
the ' Allah Upanishad,' has been provided in His 
honour." 

Moreover, Hindus charge the Mohammedan faith 
with being the cause of the zenana system of this 
land. The seclusion of women began, they say, on 
account of the licentiousness of the Arabs. How- 
ever this may be, it is true that the Mohammedan 



320 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Purdah system, which separates so thoroughly 
women from the other sex, found adoption, or at 
least emphasis, among the Hindus. In ancient 
times, so far as we can learn, the women of Brah- 
manism found considerable freedom and indepen- 
dence of life. Probably the truth is that, as Hin- 
duism developed certain types of doctrine which bore 
heavily upon the weaker sex, the range of privilege 
and opportunity which women enjoyed found grad- 
ual limitation and curtailment which found marked 
impetus upon the advent of the Arab hordes. 

And it should be remembered that the persist- 
ent attitude of Mohammedans toward slavery and 
toward polygamy has had a deleterious effect upon 
the Hindu people. 

Though Islam came to India uninvited, and 
though its pathway has been marked with blood, it 
has not been without great opportunity to impress 
the people of this land with its nobility. But, as 
we have seen, the opportunity does not seem to 
have been improved. After twelve centuries of 
active propagandism and some centuries of political 
rule and religious oppression, this religion is still 
an exotic, and finds, on the whole, small place in 
the affection of the people. This is owing in part 



ISLAM IN INDIA 321 

to its want of adaptation and inherent lack of 
vital power. As Sir Monier William has said: 
" There is a finality and a want of elasticity about 
Mohammedanism which precludes its expanding 
beyond a certain fixed line of demarcation. Having 
once reached this line, it appears to lapse back- 
wards — to tend toward mental and moral slavery, 
to contract with the narrower and narrower circles 
of bigotry and exclusiveness." 

Add again to this the fact, already mentioned, 
that its new environment in India has been dele- 
terious to the vitality of the Mohammedan faith. 
" Mohammedanism, as a quiescent non-proselytizing 
religion, could only become corrupt and rotten. 
The effect of all this policy on the mass of Moham- 
medans was to deprive their religious sentiment of 
that intolerance which constituted its strength. Its 
moral power was gone when it ceased to be intol- 
erant. . . . These two religions have thus settled 
down beside each other on terms of mutual charity 
and toleration. This does not imply any great 
change or deterioration in Hinduism, for its prin- 
ciples admit every belief as truth, and eveiy religion 
as a way of salvation. All that it requires is 
acknowledgment of the same principle from other 



322 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

religions, and this is the position which it has prac- 
tically forced Mohammedanism to assume in India. 
But such a position is utterly opposed to the prin- 
ciples and claims of the latter religion; and in forc- 
ing Mohammedanism to accept it, Hinduism has 
undoubtedly gained the triumph." ^ 

And yet let it not be supposed that Islam in 
India is either dead or moribund. It is evidently 
sensible of its defects and has made, from time to 
time, efforts to reform itself. 

Under the stress of circumstances and the sense 
of waning power they have even translated the 
Quran into Urdu, with a view to reaching the 
common people. This is an unique effort on their 
part. Like Romanists, in the use of the Latin ser- 
vice, the Mohammedans cling, with deathly tenacity, 
to their Arabic bible and Arabic worship, foolishly 
believing that to vernacularize their faith is to de- 
grade and corrupt it. In Madura, where there is a 
mosque of some pretension, there are only two or 
three who can pronounce their Arabic Quran. And 
while they have learned to pronounce, in the ancient 
tongue, their beloved book, they do not understand 
the meaning of what they say, and merely parrot 

^ "Hinduism and Christianity," by Dr. Robson, pp. i68, 173. 



ISLAM IN INDIA 323 

the whole ritual. But a break has been made from 
this inane method of worship, and their holy book 
has now been translated into one vernacular of 
India. 

Islam has also revealed definite redeeming qualities 
which seem distinctive and are worthy of enumeration. 

Its prohibition of the use of intoxicating drinks is 
definite, and its attitude toward that accursed habit 
has been consistently and vehemently antagonistic. 
Hence, the Mohammedan of India is recognized as 
a sober man, faithful to his religion in this matter 
wherein the Christian reveals so much weakness. It 
is true that in some parts of the country Mussulmans 
are too often addicted to the use of opiates. But a 
drunken member of this faith is rarely to be found. 
In this, Islam has joined forces with Hinduism itself 
in proscribing a habit which is the curse and ruin of 
too many Christian lands. And it is a distinct blot 
upon the Christian Church in India that many of its 
followers, in this land of sobriety and abstinence, so 
easily fall into the temptation of the cup and become 
the victims of intemperance. 

Islam also enforces the law of usury among its 
followers. With the Jew, the Mohammedan has been 
strictly forbidden to make money by the use of 



324 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

money. And though they find ways of evading this 
law, to some extent, the ideal which they have before 
them is a restraint and a blessing in a land where the 
usurer is a ubiquitous curse, because of his rapacity 
and the expertness with which he draws the common 
people into his net and leads millions to financial loss 
and ruin. 

The supreme place given in this faith to the duty 
of almsgiving, and the effective way with which it 
is carried out among its members, is another praise- 
worthy feature. At the time of their political rule 
and extensive sway there was a well-known tax whose 
purpose was to carry relief to the poor and the suffer- 
ing. And Mohammedans feel to-day that there is 
hardly a religious duty which is more sacred and 
carries with it more of reward than that of distribut- 
ing alms to the poor. Far more than Christianity 
has it given importance and distinction to this as a 
special form of its religious activity. 

Moreover, its command to observe the five seasons 
of daily prayer is important, with a view to maintain- 
ing and enforcing the ordinary forms and observances 
of a living faith. Many a time have I been impressed 
with the way Mohammedans, in this land, faithfully 
and boldly observe this rule and privilege of their 



ISLAM IN INDIA 325 

faith by spreading their mats in most unexpected 
places, even in the presence of gaping crowds, and 
prostrating themselves in prayer with their faces 
Mecca-ward as a proof of their sincerity and as a 
testimony to the power of their religion. 

But there is nothing in which Islam exerts a more 
salutary influence in this caste-ridden land than in 
its attitude toward this monster evil of Hinduism. 
Islam is neither founded upon race, colour, nor 
nationality. It has been well said that in Islam " all 
believers belong to the highest caste." It recog- 
nizes to the full the brotherhood of all the members 
of its faith. Even its slaves have been exalted to its 
throne and have achieved highest distinction. The 
last census correctly says : " On its social side, the 
religion of Mohammed is equally opposed to the 
Hindu scheme of a hierarchy of castes, an elaborate 
stratification of society based upon subtle distinctions 
of food, dress, drink, marriage, and ceremonial usage. 
In the sight of God and of His Prophet all followers 
of Islam are equal. In India, however, caste is in the 
air; its contagion has spread even to the Moham- 
medans ; and we find its evolution proceeding on 
characteristically Hindu lines. In both communities, 
foreign descent forms the highest claim to social dis- 



326 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

tinction ; in both, promotion cometh from the West. 
As the twice-born Aryan is to the mass of Hindus, so 
is the Mohammedan of alleged Arab, Persian, Afghan, 
or Mogul origin to the rank and file of his coreligion- 
ists." 

I admit that there are social distinctions and class 
cleavages among the members of this faith, as among 
all peoples. These are in no sense religious, how- 
ever, as they are in Hinduism. Among the members 
of that faith there is equality of right ; and every 
Islamite, by his own industry and character, can enjoy 
that right in this land. It is true that Islam has yet 
to learn the brotherhood of man as such, and to rec- 
ognize that the non-Mussulman and the Mussulman 
alike are possessed of equal rights and favours in the 
sight of God. But within the faith itself, caste, as 
such, is unknown. This is much more than can be 
said of the Indian Christian Church at the present 
day, notwithstanding the spirit of our religion and its 
definite injunctions. The Hindu caste system has 
been transferred too much into the Christian fold. 
Most of the accessions from Hinduism to Moham- 
medanism at the present time are from the lowest 
classes of Hinduism, with a view to securing a defi- 
nitely higher social status which Mohammedanism 



ISLAM IN INDIA 327 

distinctly promises and invariably confers upon these 
newcomers. It were well if modern converts to 
Christianity from the outcasts could hope for and re- 
ceive from the Hindus the same recognized advance 
in social position and esteem by becoming members 
of our religion, as they do by entering the faith of 
Islam. This is not the fault of Christianity, but the 
folly of its converts, who do not leave their heathenish 
conceptions and estimates outside the precincts of 
Christianity. This difference, which I have empha- 
sized, is, as might be expected, more marked and 
manifest in South India than elsewhere. A Christian 
worker in this land cannot help envying Islam the 
noble stand which it has taken concerning caste. 

At the present time the Muslims of India are 
divided into two sects, something like the Catholics 
and Protestants of Christianity. The Sunnis are the 
traditionists, and constitute the large majority of that 
faith. The Shiahs are the dissenters. For twelve 
hundred years has this division existed, and the two 
parties are as irreconcilable to-day as ever. There is 
also a sect of mystics known as Sufis. 

In the seventeenth century a new sect of Purists 
was formed in Arabia. They reject the glosses of 
Imtnams, will not accept the authority of the Sultan, 



328 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

and make light of the great Prophet himself. They 
are a fanatical sect and delight in proclaiming jihad, 
or holy war, against the infidels. These are the 
Wahabbis. This sect was introduced to India by 
Sayad Ahmed Shah, and it has gained many converts. 
It is largely a movement toward reforming the faith 
from within. In spirit, it is not very unlike the move- 
ment of the fanatics known as Ghazis, whose zeal 
burns against all infidels, especially those of the 
European Christian type. 

Ill 

What is the Character of the Mohammedan 
Population in India ? 

It will be interesting to appraise them largely by 
comparing them with the Hindu population which 
surrounds them. Generally speaking, they are morally 
on a level with their neighbours. In South India, 
especially, it is difficult to discriminate between the 
ethical standards which obtain among Mohammedans 
and 'Hindus. In both cases they are low and unworthy. 
This is unexpected, as Islam has always stood for a 
worthy ethical standing, while Hinduism has, from 
time immemorial, divorced morality from piety. 
Nevertheless, it is a fact that those who have passed 



II 



ISLAM IN INDIA 329 

on from Hinduism to Mohammedanism have rarely 
ascended in the ethical standard of life. 

The personal habits of the Indian Mussulman are 
not clean, to say the least of them. In this they are a 
contrast to the Brahmans, and to some other high-class 
Hindus, whose ceremonial ablutions are many. In 
South India, the Mohammedan is described by a ver- 
nacular expression which is as uncomplimentary as it 
is filthy, and which is intended to classify them among 
the lowest in their habits. When cholera and similar 
epidemics prevail in the regions with which I am famil- 
iar, the Mohammedan, with the Pariah, on account of 
unclean habits, becomes the first victim of its ravages. 

Add to this their strong belief in fate, which leads 
them, during these epidemics, to neglect or to decline 
the use of medical remedies. Many a Muslim perishes 
during such times because of his fatalistic convictions. 

They are also among the most ignorant of all classes 
in India. While, in the total population of the land, 
hardly more than 5 per cent are, in any sense, literate, 
the Mohammedans, as a class, have only 3 per cent. 
And of the Mohammedan population nearly all the 
women are analphabet. In the educational system of 
India the government places Mohammedans among the 
"backward classes," and every effort has been made 



330 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

by the State, even to the doubling of educational grants, 
to stimulate the members of this faith on educational 
lines. 

It is one of the most discouraging facts connected 
with the Muslim population that while they are brave 
in bearing arms and loyal to the government, they 
have an apparent aversion to the schoolhouse, and 
can with difficulty be induced to secure even an ele- 
mentary education. This bears very heavily against 
their prosperity and influence. Public offices in India 
are wisely placed in charge of those who are compe- 
tent, by a thorough training and a broad education, to 
well fill them. The consequence is that the Moham- 
medan has been gradually driven out from nearly all 
public positions of trust by the intellectually more 
alert Brahman, and even by lower-class Hindus, who 
are availing themselves of the opportunities for higher 
education. 

It is not strange that the political influence of this 
community has correspondingly waned, so that only a 
very small number relatively of Muslims is found to-day 
in the councils of the Empire. 

A new ambition, however, seems to be taking pos- 
session of the community. They have recently organ- 
ized many schools under the direction of " The Society 



ISLAM IN INDIA 331 

for the Aid of Islam." These schools, without neg- 
lecting the study of the Quran and their sacred lan- 
guage and the tenets of their faith, give instruction on 
western lines, and in the English language. 

They have established, also, under the inspiration 
of the late Sir Sayid Ahmed Khan, a college at Ali- 
garh. Though the rationalistic teaching of the founder 
causes the institution to be discredited by orthodox 
leaders, the college has developed wonderfully, and is 
beginning to assume the proportions of a Muslim 
University. Of this institution a learned Mussulman 
remarked in an address : — 

" We want Aligarh to be such a home of learning 
as to command the same respect of scholars as Berlin 
or Oxford, Leipsic or Paris. And we want those 
branches of learning relative to Islam which are fast 
falling into decay to be added by Moslem scholars to 
the stock of the world's knowledge. And, above all, 
we want to create for our people an intellectual and 
moral capital — a city which shall be the home of 
elevated ideas and pure ideals ; a centre from which 
light and guidance shall be diffused among the Mos- 
lems of India." 

Much may be expected from the institution. But 
what is one such school among the many millions of 



332 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

this community in India ? Government is anxious to 
aid and inspire the community on these lines ; and the 
present success of the institution is, in good part, 
owing to the smile of the State upon it. 

The recent organization of the Pan-Islamic Move- 
ment is full of hope. The leading representatives of 
the community in India seem anxious and determined 
to rouse their coreligionists from their lethargy and 
to create within them a new ambition for a higher and 
a more honourable place in intelligence and ofHcial 
usefulness. This is much needed, because the com- 
munity has reached its lowest ebb of influence among 
the people. 

In the present unrest Mohammedans mainly stand 
with the government against the Hindu Extremists. 
They wisely realize that the British Raj presents to 
them, as a community, far better opportunity and larger 
favours than would accrue to them under any other 
possible government, even though their warlike traits 
might lead them once more to subdue and rule the 
land themselves. 



fi 



ISLAM IN INDIA 



IV 



333 



Christian Effort in India in Behalf of the 
Mussulman 

Missionaries have everywhere presented to Mo- 
hammedan and Hindu alike the Gospel Message. 
The follower of Mohammed has never been ignored 
in the proclaiming of Christ and in the work of 
the Mission school. 

Generally speaking, they are a very hard class 
to reach ; they very rarely seem impressed, or are 
willing to consider the message as a personal call 
to themselves. The higrh character of their faith 

O 

above that of the surrounding people partly accounts 
for this. Moreover, the religion itself inculcates in- 
tolerance, and naturally narrows the vision of appre- 
ciation and sympathy amongst its followers. 

It is also, in some measure, due to their supreme 
ignorance of the teaching of their own faith. They 
have many fantastic notions about Islam, such as 
intelligent members of their faith repudiate, and such 
as make them inaccessible to the Christian worker. 

And yet they are not reached and impressed 
with more difficulty than are the Brahmans and 
some other high-class Hindus. Though conver- 



334 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

sions from among them have been relatively few, 
accessions from Islam to the Christian faith have 
been continuous during the last century. There 
have not been many mass movements among them. 
It has been largely the struggle of individual souls 
from the trammels of one faith into the liberty of 
the other. Dr. Wherry informs us that : " In the 
North, especially the Punjab, and the Northwest 
Frontier Province, every congregation has a repre- 
sentation from the Moslem ranks. Some of the 
churches have a majority of their membership 
gathered from amongst the Mussulmans. In a few 
cases there has been something like a movement 
among Moslems toward Christianity, and a con- 
siderable number have come out at one time. But 
perhaps the fact that tells most clearly the story 
of the advance of Christianity among Moslems in 
India, is this, that among the native pastors and 
Christian preachers and teachers in North India 
there are at least two hundred who were once fol- 
lowers of Islam. Among the names of those who 
have gone to their reward (many of them, after 
long lives of faithful service), some of my readers 
will recall the names of the Rev. Maulvie Ima- 
duddin, D.D., Maulvie Safdar Ali, E.A.C, Munshi 



ISLAM IN INDIA 335 

Mohammed Hanif, Sayyad Abdullah Athim, E.A.C., 
the Rev. Rajab Ali, Sain Gumu Shah, the Rev. 
Abdul Masih, the Rev. Asraf Ali, the Rev. Jani 
Ali, and Dilawur Khan. These faithful servants 
of God have left behind them memories which 
still live. Many of them have bequeathed volumes 
of literature, which have added much to the liter- 
ary wealth of all the churches. They give an 
index wherewith to guide us as to what the strength 
and character of the Church of the future will be 
when the strong champions of the Crescent shall 
have become the Champions of the Cross." 

We are also told by the Rev. Maulvie Imadud- 
din, D.D., of North India, that "117 men of posi- 
tion and influence have become Christians, of whom 
62 became clergy and leading men in many of the 
Indian Missions, and 51 are gentlemen occupying 
positions professional and official. Out of 956 bap- 
tisms of the Church Missionary Society in the 
Amritsar District, 152 were Mohammedan converts. 
In the Punjab there are at least two congregations 
made up entirely of Mohammedans, while in Ben- 
gal there is a body of more than 6000 Christians 
composed almost entirely of Mohammedan converts 
and their descendants, a large number having come 



336 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

over en masse some years ago. These last were 
converts in the first instance from Hinduism to 
Mohammedanism, and hence were not bound so 
strongly to Islam." 

In South India, less attention has been paid 
to Mohammedans as a class, and the results there- 
fore have been very meagre. A few individuals, 
here and there, have accepted our faith, and that 
is practically all. This is not strange when we 
remember that out of the eleven hundred Protes- 
tant missionaries, male and female, in Southern 
India, perhaps not a dozen have any special train- 
ing and aptitude for work among Mohammedans, 
and hardly more than that number are giving 
themselves entirely to the work. 

The difficulty of this work should appeal more 
than it does to the heroic element in missionaries 
and missionary societies alike. The above facts 
indicate that there is encouragement for one who 
gives himself heartily to this people. In no other 
land has missionary effort for the members of this 
religion achieved greater results than in India. If 
their numbers are few, they are more resolute and 
pronounced in their Christian character than many 
others. In the roll of honour among the converts 



ISLAM IN INDIA 337 

from Islam have been found the names of a number 
of distinguished pastors and able writers. 

In the recent Conference of Missionaries, held in 
Cairo, a new purpose was manifested to take up 
with more discriminating and pronounced zeal and 
better methods the work of reaching and convert- 
ing the Mohammedans of the world. 

In India, a better organized and a wider cam- 
paign for the conversion of Islam is needed. Men 
and women who are to take up work in their be- 
half must not only be well trained for this spe- 
cific work by a thorough knowledge of both faiths ; 
they must also be imbued with abundant sympathy 
for the people, and with a sympathetic appreciation 
of the vital truths which have thus far animated 
the Mohammedan faith. The constructive, rather 
than the destructive, method of activity must increas- 
ingly animate all. The Mohammedans are pecul- 
iarly sensitive ; and there is so much of contact 
between their faith and ours that through the path- 
way of the harmonies of the faiths men must be 
led to know and feel the supreme excellence and 
power of the faith of the Christ. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 

The study of the life and the character of noted 
and noble men is the most helpful and inspiring of all 
studies. It not only illustrates life at its best, it also 
fills men with an ambition to pursue the same noble 
purposes and to achieve the same lofty results in life. 
In presenting a brief glimpse of the two most power- 
ful personalities that ever impressed themselves upon 
the world, I desire to place them side by side that we 
may appreciate the assonances and the dissonances of 
their wonderful lives and rise through the study into 
a true conception and love of the most perfect Life 
ever breathed upon earth. 

I have no apology to offer, as. a Christian, for com- 
paring the life of our Lord with that of any human 
being; for, though Divine, He was also supremely 
human ; and human glory and achievement appear in 
their fulness only when we gaze upon Him as one of 
the mighty human forces of history. 

Christ and Buddha lived their brief lives upon earth 

338 




o 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 341 

many centuries ago ; and yet never did they grip so 
many by the magic of their attraction as they do at 
present. Nearly two-thirds of the whole population 
of the world to-day acknowledges the lordship of the 
one or the other of these and loves to be called by 
their names. The influence of the one dominates all 
the life of the West, while that of the other is supreme 
in the East. And it is a curious and interesting fact 
that Buddha has not only been exalted as the ninth 
incarnation of Vishnu in the faith which he aimed to 
overthrow, he has also been adopted into the Roman 
Catholic Calendar and is worshipped on the 27th of 
November as a Christian saint under the title " Saint 
Josaphat." 

I am also convinced that the influence of the lives 
and teachings of Buddha and Christ will react upon 
each other with ever increasing power during the 
coming years. Indeed, we are now witnessing this 
very influence developing before our eyes. 

I 

Let us first observe the conditions under which 
these two lived their earthly lives. 

One was born into royal prerogatives and splendour 
and was surrounded in youth with all the luxuries 



342 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

and blandishments of an Oriental court. The other, 
though of royal lineage, was born in poverty, cradled 
in a manger, earned a meagre subsistence as a carpen- 
ter, and was able to say at the end of His brief career 
that the foxes had holes and the birds of the air 
had nests, but that He had not where to lay His 
head. 

Sidhartthan early married and became a father, but 
later renounced all the pleasures and responsibilities 
of a grihastan life. His great renunciation is one of 
the most striking and impressive acts in the history of 
mankind, and his subsequent asceticism was of the 
most thorough and rigid type. 

Jesus of Nazareth avoided the entanglements of 
married life and had a supreme contempt for the 
wealth and the pomp of the world. Yet He was 
not an ascetic. So freely did He associate with men, 
participating even in their festivities, that His enemies 
falsely charged Him with being a "glutton and a 
winebibber." He never countenanced the idea that 
highest sainthood must come through asceticism. 

He found His intimates not among the ascetic 
Essenes, but among householders and men of affairs. 

Both these great souls were similarly oppressed by 
the prevalence and the tyranny of an exclusive cere- 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 343 

monialism. In the one case, it was the innumerable 
bloody sacrifices and the all-embracing and crushing 
ritual of the Brahmans which roused the anger and 
opposition of Gautama ; while, on the other hand, the 
myriad rites, the childish ceremonies, and the hollow 
religious hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees filled 
Jesus with hatred and led Him to a denunciation of 
that whole class. " Woe unto you, Scribes and Phari- 
sees," was the oft-repeated expression of wrath which 
He heaped upon them. 

Thus the religions which both established were, in 
part, reactions from the religious excesses and errors 
of the days in which they lived. 

It is strange that neither Christ nor Buddha left 
any writings behind them, even though writing was a 
known art in their times. Their mighty influence 
was through oral teaching and example. This was 
different from the method of other such world-leaders 
as Moses, Mohammed, and Confucius. It proves that 
whenever any one has truths of saving power to com- 
mit to the world, there are many who, as his messen- 
gers, are ready to convey them. Better indeed than 
to convey one's thoughts by printed page is it to im- 
part them through the living voice to disciples who 
will thrill the world by the message coloured by their 



344 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

own mind and transfigured by their own enthusiasm. 
This was the method of Christ and Buddha. 

Both were surrounded by ah Oriental environment. 
Their antecedents and their prepossessions were of 
the East, eastern ; and at their births they were intro- 
duced to scenes and began to breathe the atmosphere 
of the Orient. All the great founders of the World 
Religions were men of the East. This was doubtless 
because the East kept more closely than the West in 
touch with deepest religious thought and was ani- 
mated with highest religious emotions and heavenly 
aspirations. Certainly the world owes more to an- 
cient Asia for its religious life and spiritual attain- 
ments than to all the other continents put together. 
And Asia is to be thanked, above all, because she 
gave to mankind the Christ and the Buddha. For 
the eastern flavour of their messages and the Oriental 
tints of their life we are deeply grateful. To those of 
the West, these have always brought quiet restraint 
and a hallowed, peaceful repose to counteract the 
hurry and worry of life to which they are so much 
exposed and which are a part of their very being. 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 



345 



II 

The Common Principles which controlled their Lives 

Both were men of deepest sincerity. All sham 
and hypocrisy were foreign to their nature ; they held 
insincerity in any one to be the meanest and most 
deadly sin. To this intense loyalty to the truth, 
Jesus bore emphatic testimony by an early martyr- 
dom ; while Gautama gave the same unwavering 
witness by a long and holy life. They both stood 
in the midst of communities which were rotten with 
hypocrisy and which were using religion as a sacred 
garb of duplicity and were raising temples of dis- 
honesty to enraged deity. They stood like prophets 
in the wilderness and pronounced woe upon all 
hypocrites. 

Moreover, both Christ and Buddha were profoundly 
ethical in their teaching. They found that humanity 
was. not only rotten with insincerity, it was also de- 
ceiving itself with the vain delusion that moral in- 
tegrity and ethical nobility can be bartered for a mul- 
titudinous ceremonial. Men have always been prone 
to exalt ritual in proportion as they have neglected 
the eternal demands of conscience and the ethical 
foundation of character. The myriad-tongued cere- 



346 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

monial of the Brahmans of twenty-five centuries ago 

was the old evasion of righteousness in human life. 

Gautama saw this, and his noble soul rebelled against 

a faith which proclaimed that salvation was a thing of 

outward religious forms and not of the heart within. 

" To cease from all sin, 
To get virtue, 
To cleanse our own heart, 
This is the religion of the Buddhas. " 

These were the words with which he enunciated 
his new principles and carried forward his campaign 
of reaction against the faith of his fathers. Nothing 
less than, or apart from, purity of the soul within 
satisfied his requirement. 

Indeed, he exalted so much the more highly this 

banner of heart purity and holiness, the less he had 

to say of the spiritual claims upon the soul. He had 

tried elaborate ceremonial and had found it wanting ; 

he had practised the most severe religious austerities, 

but they had availed him little. In the quiet light 

which had dawned upon him under the sacred Boh 

tree he found that nothing wrought so mightily and 

beneficently as Dharmay or righteousness. 

" The real treasure is that laid by man or woman. 
Through charity or piety, temperance and self-control. 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 347 

The treasure thus hid is secure, and passes not away ; 
. . . this a man takes with him." 

" Let no man think Hghtly of sin, saying in his heart, ' It cannot 
overtake me.'" 

These are only a few of the many noble ethical 
deliverances of this great man's creed. 

And during all his life, subsequent to the great 
renunciation, he embodied in himself the ethical 
beauty of all that he had taught. 

And what shall I say of Jesus, the Christ? In 
the noble integrity of His heart, in the sublime ethi- 
cal ideals which He ever exalted, in the moral recti- 
tude which He practised and enjoined upon all His 
followers, who was like unto Him.? In His day, also, 
men had forgotten the true foundation of character; 
and the religious leaders of the people were placing 
supreme emphasis upon human traditions and upon 
man-made rites as the way of salvation. 

They "tithed the mint and the cummin" and forgot 
the weishtier matters of the law. To eat with un- 
washed hands, to consort with a Samaritan, to carry 
a load or raise a sheep from the ditch on the Sabbath, 
— this was a sin which, to the Pharisees, would weigh 
a man down to hell itself ; while to lie or to use other 
foul language, or to trample under foot the whole 



348 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

decalogue was, by comparison, a venial offence. The 
whole moral code was rendered impotent by them, 
while ceremonial cleansing was the be-all and end-all 
of their system. Christ was daily thrown into conflict 
with these "blind leaders of the blind"; His soul 
abhorred their whole religious system. He charac- 
terized them as " whited sepulchres." He showed that 
it is the heart which defiles a man, "for out of the 
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, forni- 
cations, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." " Blessed," 
says He, "are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
" It was said to them of old thou shalt not kill ; " but 
Christ equally prohibited anger, the cause of murder. 
He not only denounced adultery, but the lustful look 
which is the source of adultery. 

To His followers He said " unless your righteous- 
ness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and 
Pharisees ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." He prayed the Father that He would sanc- 
tify His own, and added that for their sakes He sanc- 
tified Himself. Holiness was a passion with Him, 
and at the basis of His teaching He enjoined moral 
cleanness and ethical integrity. And His life in this, 
as in other things, was a perfect exhibition of the 
virtues which He taught. And from that day to this 



I 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 349 

His precept and example have mutually supported 
each other. In Him were wedded faith and con- 
science, piety and character. So that, where Christ 
is best known and most loyally followed to-day, there 
do we find a perfect sense of human relations and a 
supreme desire after ethical perfection. 

Furthermore, these two great souls were consumed 
with a broad and universal charity. Their environ- 
ment was perhaps the most averse to general benevo- 
lence that the world could then show. In India, 
there had already grown to great power the caste 
system with its multiplying ramifications. Then, as 
now, it narrowed the sympathies of men, it arrayed 
one class against another, it cultivated pride and fos- 
tered mutual distrust and dissension. 

When Sakya Muni came upon the scene, he saw 
the terribly divisive system sending down its root like 
the banyan tree on all sides and absorbing the life and 
thought of the people. It repelled him, and, with all 
his mighty intellectual and moral energy, he attacked 
it. He proclaimed all men brothers and worthy of 
human sympathy, love, and respect. He opened the 
door of his faith to all classes on equal terms. He 
vehemently opposed every effort to divide men except 
upon the ground of character. He enjoined upon his 



350 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

disciples not only love and kindness to all men, he 
also insisted upon a similar attitude toward all forms 
of lower life. 

The fact that Buddhism is to-day one of the three 
great Missionary Faiths of the world, seeking all men 
that are in darkness, is the best proof that the founder 
of that faith had a heart which embraced the whole 
realm of life in its love. He felt that no man, however 
humble or however far removed in ties of race and 
kinship, should be deprived of the blessings of his love 
and sympathy. It is an interesting fact that nearly 
all past religious reformers in India — both those inside 
and outside the pale of Brahmanism — were anti-caste 
in their sympathies and teaching. But it is only 
Buddha who consistently maintained the broad foun- 
dation of a universal brotherhood and incorporated it 
into his faith as a cardinal principle. 

In like manner, Jesus of Nazareth lived His earthly 
life at a time of narrow sympathies, and with people 
who were among the most exclusive that ever Hved on 
earth. The Jews believed themselves to be the spe- 
cially favoured sons of Heaven. And, what was more 
they thought that they were exalted because they were 
worthy, because they excelled all other people. Hence, 
they stood aloof from other nationalities and despised 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 35 ^ 

them as their inferiors, a social and physical contact 
with whom would be pollution. There is in many 
respects a strange correspondence between the Jewish 
social code of twenty centuries ago and that of Hindu- 
ism to-day — the same haughty mien and abjectness 
of spirit — the aloofness of pride and the cringing 
meanness of social bondage — representing the two 
extremes of society. Christ also turned His face like 
a flint against this mean artificial classification of men. 
He had a burning contempt for the proud Pharisee 
who lived upon the husks of his own contempt of 
others, and who trampled under foot men that were 
infinitely superior to himself, so far as character was 
concerned. But He consorted often with the outcast 
Publican who revealed an aspiration after better things. 
And He even chose men who were thus socially ostra- 
cized to enter His own inner circle of disciples and to 
be the standard-bearers of His cause upon earth. He 
taught that the most abject and socially submerged 
man upon earth is a son of God, and that at his moral 
and spiritual renovation there would be joy among the 
denizens of heaven. And it was while thinking of 
this same class that He said unto His own, in describ- 
ing the judgment scene at the last great day, " Come, 
ye blessed of my father, inasmuch as ye have treated 



352 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

kindly and lovingly one of the least of my brethren ye 

have done it unto me, enter ye into the joy of your 

Lord." Though He was born a Jew, He opened wide 

the portals of His religion and invited all men of all 

conditions. " Come unto me, all ye that are weary and 

heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He sent forth 

His followers into all lands to disciple and bring to 

the truth all nations. And in all lands His method of 

procedure has been to reach first the lowest among 

the people and then gradually to rise to the highest, 

until He has taken possession of the whole land. His 

universal heart of love took in all men of all social 

strata. All that He asked was that men should come 

to Him with purpose sincere and with a longing for 

light and truth. 

HI 

The Principles and Teachings which differentiate 
and separate Christ and Buddha 

Thus far we have seen these two great leaders of 
men standing side by side and revealing the same 
traits and principles. 

But they also revealed fundamental differences which 
it were well for us to consider. 

Though much united them, and that when more 
than five centuries and thousands of miles held them 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 353 

apart, we also discover that a gulf wider than that of 
time or space opened between them. 

Their lives and their doctrines and the faiths which 
they promulgated reveal strangely diverse contentions 
and tendencies. 

(i) First of all, and at the root of all, lies their atti- 
tude toward the Divine Being. Jesus was preemi- 
nently a God-intoxicated Being, while the most mani- 
fest mental attitude of Gautama was his agnosticism. 
Christ never ceased speaking of and communing with 
His Father in heaven. He was wont to retire regu- 
larly from human society in order that He might enjoy 
the Heavenly Presence whose very radiance shone in 
and upon Him daily. He declared that He did noth- 
ing without consulting with and receiving direction 
from God. And this was natural enough when we 
remember His declaration that He came into the 
world to reveal the Father unto men. Listen to His 
words, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
me and to finish His work." " The Father that 
dwelleth in me doeth the work." " The Father is 
glorified in the Son." " I love the Father and go unto 
Him." " Believest thou not that I am in the Father 
and the Father in me ? " "Oh, righteous Father, the 
world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee." 



354 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

In all His expressions of oneness with God, of His 
living unto God, and of His drawing His daily strength 
from God, His experience was eminently unique. He 
lived more in heaven than on earth in those days of 
His incarnation. Apart from any consideration of 
His Divinity, He can truly be said to be a man of God 
whose soul was in harmony with the Father. 

How different the words and experiences of Gautama 
Rishi ! Many have spoken of him as an atheist. I 
do not believe that he denied the existence of God. 
Yet it is evidently true that he has no use in his phi- 
losophy, any more than in his religion, for a Divine 
Being. There was doubtless reason for this in the 
conditions of his time ; for it may be regarded as the 
reaction of a strong mind against the extreme spirit- 
ualism and polytheism of the day. For, in those days, 
the deep spirituality of the Brahman had overflowed 
its banks and had created a multitudinous pantheon 
which repelled this man of stern mind. It was to him 
only a short step from a disbelief in the many gods to 
a doubt as to the existence of any god. And in this 
agnosticism he was doubtless aided by his fondness 
for the Sankya school of thought, which is Indian 
Agnosticism. In any case, his deliverances and his 
established religion, if such it really can be called, are 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 355 

such a reaction from the Theosophy of India as to lead 
one to wonder how, even with all its other excellences, 
it could have become in India a State Religion for 
any length of time. A religion without a God, a sac- 
rifice, a priest, or a prayer, is certainly a dreary wilder- 
ness to a God-seeking soul. And yet, this is what the 
Buddha conceived and promulgated among his disci- 
ples. Under the stress of a growing consciousness of 
the ills of this life his mind did not, like that of others, 
rise to heaven for relief ; but his salvation was to be a 
self-wrought one. With his own right arm of virtue 
he wished to carve his way into eternal life — or, shall 
I say, eternal death } Is it strange that under such a 
godless religious system its votaries should react from 
this fundamental error and deify and worship that very 
Buddha who had not a place for God in his whole 
scheme of life.^* 

At any rate, Christ and Buddha stand before us 
in striking contrast in this matter; the glory of the 
teaching of the one was that He caused His adoring 
disciple to fall upon his knees with uplifted eye and 
to say in filial reverence and trust, " Our Father who 
art in heaven." While the other taught his follow- 
ers to lean only upon self, and to seek speedy relief 
from life itself, declaring that heaven returned only 



356 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

an empty, mocking echo to the helpless wail of the 
human soul. 

(2) Corresponding to this difference was another 
difference in their conception of human life. Jesus 
maintained that the human soul came from God, 
was made for God, and that God Himself was for- 
ever seeking to bring it unto Himself. According 
to His theory of life, man is not left alone at any 
stage in his career. He may decline to entertain 
God in his life. He may lead a life of rebellion 
against his Maker and Saviour; he may even deny 
the very existence of the Father of his being. But 
God, in the riches of His infinite patience, does not 
desert him to his own base thought and life. He 
follows him like a shepherd searching for his lost 
sheep. He longs for his return like a tender, for- 
giving father for the return of his prodigal son. 
Human life, according to this view, may be mean 
and sordid and may be spent in the grossest sin; 
but there is hope. All is not lost while there is a 
spark of life left. God is still seeking and trying 
to bring the soul to new life. The million agents 
of His loving will conspire to help man; and so the 
possibilities of his life are still great. Thus, to our 
Lord Christ, the vision of human life was a bright 



THE CHRIST AND. THE BUDDHA 357 

and optimistic one. God will not leave man to him- 
self. He will bring all the resources of heaven and 
of earth to the work of saving him. " God is in 
His heaven, All's right with the world." Yes, all 
is hopeful for man because the Father is still seek- 
ing him. 

How different from this was Gautama Rishi's 
view of human life. According to him, man is a 
lone, helpless creature tossed on the sea of destiny. 
He is the only captain and steersman of his barque, 
and his own reason is his only compass ; he must 
battle alone with the waves of circumstances and 
find for himself the unknown harbour of peace. 
There is no heaven above to hear his cry, no help 
or redemption outside of self. Is it a wonder that 
life is a weariness, and existence itself an unspeak- 
able burden to such a man ? 

Thus the Buddha sought in vain for light and 
cheer in life, and pessimism became to him, as it 
continues to be to his followers, the very atmos- 
phere of life. Even as in Dante's vision of the In- 
ferno, so in the Temple of Buddha's scheme of life 
there is inscribed above its portals the words : " Aban- 
don hope all ye who enter here." 

I care not who the man may be, I humbly main- 



358 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

tain that his scheme of life is seriously wrong if it 
be a cheerless, uninspiring one; and it is perfectly 
natural that men should prefer to follow a confi- 
dent, buoyant leader rather than a heartless, de- 
spondent one. If God rules over the destinies of 
man, we have a right to expect that success and 
blessing will crown the efforts of the sincere seeker 
after a better life. Man has received life not that 
he may destroy it, but that he may cultivate it and 
find in it life abundant. 

A young mother whose child had died carried 
the dead body to Buddha, and, doing homage to 
him, said, "Lord and Master, do you know any 
medicine that will be good for my child?" "Yes," 
said the teacher, " I know of some. Get me a 
handful of mustard seed." But when the poor girl 
was hurrying away to procure it, he added, " I re- 
quire mustard seed from a house where no son, 
husband, parent, or slave has died." " Very good," 
said the girl, and went to ask for it, carrying still 
the dead child astride on her hip. The people 
said, " Here is mustard seed ; " but when she asked, 
" Has there died a son, a husband, a parent, or a 
slave in this house.?" they replied: "Lady, what is 
this that you ask? The living are few, but the 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 359 

dead are many ! " Then she went to other homes, 
but one said, " I have lost my son ; " another, " I 
have lost my parents ; " another, " I have lost my 
slave." At last, not being able to find a single 
house where no one had died, she began to think, 
"This is a heavy task that I am on." And as her 
mind cleared she summoned up her resolution, left 
the dead child in a house, and returned to Buddha. 
" Have you procured the mustard seed ? " he asked. 
" I have not," she replied. " The people of the vil- 
lage told me, ' The living are few, but the dead are 
many.' " Then Buddha said, " You thought you 
alone had lost a son ; the law of death is that 
among all living creatures there is no permanence." 
Little comfort in these words ! 

Of course, we can see how these two conflicting 
views of life found acceptance and expression in 
these two great leaders of mankind. For, to Jesus, 
the keyword of life was divine grace or atonement, 
while to Gautama it was Karma — that word which 
has for so many centuries been to all India the 
truest expression of its philosophy and of its life. 

Christ taught that the grace of God was at the 
service of every man for his success in this life 
and for his redemption in the world to come. He 



36o INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

ever emphasized the inspiring message that God's 
work and man's effort constitute the warp and woof 
of the life of every man. In His whole scheme of 
salvation there is no place for discouragement; for, 
walking through the path of life hand in hand with 
God, man can overthrow every enemy to his prog- 
ress and achieve the best and highest in God's 
purposes for him. 

But when the Buddha adopted the doctrine of 
Karma as the foundation of life, he and his system 
were doomed to despondency, gloom, and discour- 
agement. It is indeed a noble truth that every 
man must drink, to its last dregs, the fruit of his 
own action — that the law of Karma works with 
relentless force in every life in the world. Only 
let us understand that God may enter into each 
life to enable man to face successfully that law, and 
it is all right. But condemn man to everlasting 
isolation ; cut away from him every ray of Divine 
help, and the working out of his Karma becomes 
a terrible and an almost unending tragedy — a 
Sisyphean task with no hope of release save in the 
wiping out of life itself. And this is what the great 
Soul of the East believed and taught. He faced 
boldly the problem. He had, at the beginning, 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 361 

ignored the very existence of God, and thus denied 
himself the least hope of external aid in his own 
emancipation ; and thus he held that stern, cruel, 
relentless Karma became the all-controlling and 
universal law of life. 

To a Christian, among the most pathetic words 
ever spoken are those spoken by Buddha to his 
beloved cousin and disciple as death drew near — 
" O ! Anantha, . . . My journey is drawing to its 
close. I have reached eighty years, and just as a 
worn-out cart can only with much care be made to 
move along, so my body can only be kept going with 
difficulty. ... In future be ye to yourselves your own 
light, your own refuge; seek no other refuge. . . . 
Look not to any one but yourselves as a refuged 

And that which farther, -and very naturally, 
widens the gulf which separates them is their view 
of the adequacy or inadequacy of the present hu- 
man life to satisfy the laws of their being. 

The law which Jesus believed to prevail, and 
which He constantly promulgated and emphasized, 
was that of the finality of the human life — that 
man has once only to pass through this earthly life 
and that then comes death, which introduces him 
to an eternal future corresponding with the char- 



k 



362 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

acter of his choices and life on earth. According 
to Him, this brief earthly existence, which will not 
be repeated, is a training school for the glorious 
life beyond. Blessed is he who faithfully submits 
himself to this training and passes through the gate 
of death prepared for an immortality of joy in God's 
presence beyond. 

Indeed, Jesus never gives the first intimation of 
any future birth or life, save that which would be 
permanent and eternal in heaven or hell. 

He felt the adequacy of this life as a determiner 
of the eternal destiny of all men. And He felt 
that the salvation which He wrought and offered 
to all was able to carry man through the single 
portal of death into unending bliss. Why another 
entrance into this world, if by passing through the 
world God could bring into the life the seed and 
power of His own grace and life which would 
blossom and bear fruit in the soul throughout eter- 
nity ? " Marvel not," He sayeth, " the hour cometh 
in which all that are dead shall hear his voice and 
shall come forth; they that have done good into 
the resurrection of life ; and they that have done 
evil into the resurrection of judgment." And as 
He described the final judgment upon all men after 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 363 

one earthly life He says that " these shall go away 
into eternal punishment, but the righteous into 
eternal life." Moreover, in describing the condition 
of the dead He makes the faithful Abraham say to 
the soul of a dead sinner, " Between us and you 
there is a great gulf fixed that they who would 
pass hence to you may not be able to pass and 
that you may not cross from thence to us." That 
is, He claimed that the life which we live here so 
fixes the destiny of men that eternity will carry its 
impress. Hence the urgency and the supreme im- 
portance of this one life to all men. The universal 
succession, according to His teaching, is life, death, 
resurrection, judgment, and eternal reward. 

To the Buddha, who, as we have seen, held that 
man is the only architect of his own destiny and 
that he must therefore abide the working of his 
Karma, a single brief apprenticeship in the school 
of life seemed altogether inadequate as a test of 
character and as a reliable foundation for the edifice 
of one's eternal destiny, or as a basis for the one 
irrevocable judgment. It is but natural, therefore, 
that this great Indian Rishi should have adopted 
as his own the doctrine of metempsychosis, or trans- 
migration, and that he should add great emphasis 



364 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

to it. To him, life was a penitentiary rather than 
a school, a place, or an occasion, for eating the 
fruits of past action rather than a training for the 
future eternity which awaits every one. 

It is true that Gautama must have had some 
idea of the corrective influence and disciplinary 
character of this earthly existence ; for there is a 
quiet assumption that in some unexplained and 
unintelligible way the soul is improved by this 
multitudinous process of reincarnation. And yet I 
fail to see any reason for expecting such a develop- 
ment. Philosophically and morally, the raison d'etre 
of the doctrine of reincarnation is to explain the in- 
equalities of life; and it does it not, as Jesus would 
do it, by means of the doctrine of heredity, but by 
the retributive power of Karma, or actions pursuing 
the soul through successive births and compelling 
it to reveal by its conditions and reflect by its 
experiences in each birth the experiences of the 
previous birth. The moral influence of such a 
doctrine is rendered all but impossible by the fact 
that there is no consciousness (the true basis of 
moral continuity) to connect one birth with another. 
I know of no one but Mrs. Besant who claims to 
know what his previous, assumed birth was, and I 



I 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 365 

have not yet met any one who believes her claim 
in this matter. There is no moral discipline for 
one in his being punished for a thing of which he 
has absolutely no conscious knowledge. 

We must further consider the character of Gau- 
tama's philosophy. It was, as is well known, thor- 
oughly materialistic — the antipodes of the orthodox 
Hindu philosophy, which is highly spiritual. To 
Buddha, there was no such thing as a soul apart 
from the body. What was there, then, to connect 
one birth with another, according to his teaching ? 
In Brahmanism the doctrine of transmigration is at 
this point very clear, for there is the eternal Ahna, 
or self, to connect and unify all its incarnations. 
But Gautama, who denied the separate existence of 
the soul, maintained that it was not the self, but 
the Karma, which passed from one birth to an- 
other; and thus there became the oneness of 
Karma without an identity of soul passing through 
and uniting the myriad incarnations of the person 
involved. How can one substitute here a sameness 
of Karma for identity of soul? Behold, then, the 
insuperable difficulties which such a materialism 
interposes to a belief either in the possibility or in 
the wisdom of the doctrine of reincarnation. 



366 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

And yet let it be remembered here that so long 
as one accepts the doctrine of Karma he cannot 
evade the sister doctrine of reincarnation. They 
belong to the same system, and must be accepted 
or rejected together. 

If, however, we emphasize divine grace as an 
element in the solution of human problems and in 
the salvation of man, then it is natural to conclude 
that one earthly life will suffice for God and man 
together to prepare the soul for the consummation 
and beatification which awaits it beyond death. 
But if the whole problem is to be solved and the 
whole work of redemption achieved by man himself, 
apart from God, then Buddha must have been 
justified in believing that an inconceivable number 
of births and human lives are necessary in order to 
accomplish this. 

It was just at this point that Christ and Buddha 
faced the opposite poles. And it is just here, for 
this very reason, that the faiths which they pro- 
mulgated represent, the one the perpetual buoyancy 
and cheer of youth, and the other the weariness of 
discouraged age. 

Christianity claims to do its work for the soul, 
so far as settling its destiny is concerned, in the 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 367 

brief life of a few years; and under the inspiring 
influence of this conviction the pulse quickens, 
youthful hope and energy multiply, and the whole 
soul is kindled by a close vision of its speedy 
triumph and release. The Buddhist, on the other 
hand, knows that it is a long, lonely conflict — the 
interminably long processions of births weary him 
and the dim vision of a release which is far away 
brings no inspiration. Life palls upon him, courage 
fails _ him, Jiis steps grow shorter and his pace 
slackens. 

(3) This brings us to the ideals which these two 
world-leaders entertained. Often men's ideals are a 
better revelation of their life and character than are 
their achievements. These ideals which I wish to 
point out are two — that of inner attainment and 
that of final consummation. 

And what was the chief ambition for personal 
achievement sought by Jesus and Gautama.'* I be- 
lieve that the very names which they acquired and 
which are at the head of this chapter answer this 
question for us. " Christ " and " Buddha " are not 
the personal names given in infancy, nor are they 
tribal designations. They primarily represent their 
official titles. " Christ " means " the Anointed One," 



368 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

and " Buddha " signifies " the Enlightened One " — 
the one is a term expressive of spiritual powers for 
service, while the other means intellectual enlight- 
enment for communion. One sought and found 
the baptism of the spirit of God which touched and 
transfigured His character; the other was seeking 
more light on the problems of life ; and for that 
light he sought with a wonderful longing and per- 
severance until the dawn broke on that remarkable 
day under the sacred Boh tree and he found the 
light and was hence called " the Enlightened One." 

Thus, in the Christ-life, the emphasis was upon 
ethical and spiritual attainment, while, in Buddha, the 
thing sought was the clear vision and transcendent 
illumination. 

Let me not be misunderstood. There is a sense in 
which the consecration and the vision are in the same 
line. It was Christ Himself that said, " This is eternal 
life, to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ 
whom Thou hast sent." Spiritual knowledge is the 
pathway to the highest life — it is life itself. It must 
be, in large part, acquired through spiritual experience. 

At the same time, it is an interesting fact that Buddha 
laid, as India has always laid, emphasis — undue em- 
phasis — upon knowledge as the consummation to 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 369 

be sought. Brahma Gnana is the sujnmujt bonum of 
life. To rightly know myself in my relationship, this, 
they say, is the only qualification for beatification. On 
the other hand, Jesus insisted always upon a right 
moral and spiritual attitude and relationship to God as 
the highest point of human attainment in life. Listen 
to the beatitudes which he uttered : " Blessed are the 
poor in spirit ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are they that mourn ; for they shall be com- 
forted. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit 
the earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst 
after righteousness ; for they shall be filled. Blessed 
are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed 
are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. 
Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called 
sons of God. Blessed are they that have been per- 
secuted for righteousness' sake ; for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven." 

These are the beatitudes of His Kingdom, and all 
refer to the spiritual graces which He Himself exem- 
plified and inculcated, and none refer to enlightenment. 

Thus in both we have, if not a contrast, a different 
outlook, which has not only impressed the student 
with a sense of divergence; but that which is more 
important — it has given to the devotees of these two 



370 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

faiths widely different aspirations, and has given to the 
two types of lives produced very dissimilar traits. 

But, that which is of more consequence, in these 
ideals, is their conception of what life tends to and 
must ultimately attain unto. The final consummation 
of life meant nought else to Jesus than God-likeness, 
which He called "Eternal Life." To have grown to 
the perfection of those moral and spiritual character- 
istics which adorn God Himself; to have the human 
will so subdued and directed until it runs parallel with 
the Divine will ; to have the soul consumed with a love 
of all that He loves and with an abhorrence of all that 
He hates, — this is life indeed and the highest realiza- 
tion of the human soul. Yea, more, to pass out of this 
life into the conscious bliss and eternal felicity of the 
life to come, to dwell with God — one with Him in 
purpose and character, and yet living a separate con- 
scious existence, basking in the eternal sunshine of 
His Presence and favour, — this is the fulness of 
blessing which Christ presented before His own as 
the end to be sought and the consummation which 
God placed within their reach. 

On the other hand. Nirvana is the word which holds 
condensed the whole realm of Buddha's ideals. It is 
not my purpose to discuss the original meaning of this 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 371 

word. I gladly concede that it meant a state of moral 
achievement when the powers of the soul were at 
equilibrium and when resultant peace pervaded the 
life. But we also know that it meant, preeminently, 
that state in which the soul had passed beyond contact 
with body, in which contact alone it found conscious- 
ness and sensation and human activity ; when the soul, 
freed from births, had returned to its elemental con- 
dition of semi-nothingness, with neither thought, emo- 
tion, nor volition. This was a condition in which was 
found only the negative blessing of release from the 
turbulence and surging distresses of life. Without 
calling it non-existence, we claim that it is wanting in 
every element that we connect, or can conceive con- 
nected, with human existence. 

There is nothing in it to inspire hope nor to invite 
cheer. All we can do in its presence is to ask — is 
this all that man, the flower of God's universe, is to 
arrive at ? Is there nothing better for him than to end 
his long, dreary existence in such an abject failure ? 
Must he descend from the plain of even a wretched 
human life to this the lowest reach of existence, if such 
we must call it ? 

In the eyes of Christ, there issues out of the mighty 
conflict of life a purified, glorified human being fit to 



372 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

dwell forever in the presence of His Father and adopted 
to enjoy that presence for evermore. To Buddha, this 
same human life ends in failure and must rest forever 
under the dark pall of oblivion, and robbed by Nirvana 
of all the possibilities of good and of joy that were 
implanted in it. 

In the absence of higher satisfaction, all that Buddha 
could do was to glory in his achievements, because of 
their pervasive influence upon the lives of others during 
all future time. We might imagine him joining with 
George Eliot in her noble aspiration : — 

" O ! may I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead who live again 
In minds made better by their presence : live 
In pulses stirred to generosity, 
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 
For miserable aims that end with self, 
In thoughts subhme that pierce the nightlike stars. 
And with their mild persistence urge man's search 
To vaster issues . . . 
This is life to come." 

But Christ gave us a larger hope and a loftier 
purpose than this, even the conscious possession of 
abundant life ourselves and the growing knowledge of 
the boundless good which our earthly life has done for 
others. To live in men is joy indeed ; but that involves 



THE CHRIST AND THE BUDDHA 373 

an ability to feel that joy; and this, again, is a part 
only of the Eternal Life which He gives to all who 
believe in Him. 

It is His disciple only who can say: — 
" Beloved, now are we the Sons of God. But we 
know not what we shall be ; but we know that when 
He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see 
Him as He is." 



CHAPTER XIII 

MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 

In matters of faith, India has always been ultra- 
conservative. This is largely owing, not to any 
fettering of thought, but rather to the Hindu Caste 
System, which has been the most rigid guardian of 
the Brahmanic faith and the doughty opponent of 
any new and independent movements. 

India has offered to her rishis and reformers un- 
bounded latitude of thought. And, as a consequence, 
her faith possesses within itself every shade of re- 
ligious speculation and philosophic conclusions. 
The many antipodal and conflicting doctrines, 
theories, tendencies, and institutions which obtain 
under the all-embracing name of Hinduism, seem 
astonishing to every western investigator of this 
faith. 

Even in matters of ritual, Brahmanism has always 
had its protestants, sectarians, and " come-outers." 
During this stern dominance of the Caste System, 
which is the most rigorous, if not the most cruel, 

374 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 375 

inquisition that the world has known, there have 
always been men free to think and determined 
enough to push forward their ideas and their new 
religious methods. And these have added pic- 
turesque variety to the history of faith in India. 

It is, however, a remarkable tribute to the power 
of caste and to the unheroic character of Hindu re- 
formers, that, of the myriad reforms and protests 
against Brahmanism which have bristled throughout 
the centuries, only one — Buddhism — has stood 
apart in persistent isolation, and has maintained a 
separate identity and usefulness through more than 
two millenniums. Of all these protesting creeds, it 
alone has had sufficient masculine power and moral 
earnestness permanently to impress itself upon the 
world as a great religion. It has achieved this, how- 
ever, not in the land of its birth, but in other lands 
and among other peoples. Like all other attempts 
to reform, or overthrow, the mother faith (and even 
after it had largely accomplished this for ten centu- 
ries). Buddhism finally yielded to the mighty absorp- 
tive power of Brahmanism, was overthrown as the 
dominant religion of India, and lost all power and 
acceptance among the people. This was because 
most of its vital teachings were appropriated by the 



376 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

rival faith, and Buddha himself was adopted into the 
Hindu pantheon as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu. 
Henceforward, it had no distinctive mission or mes- 
sage to the people of this land, and died a natural 
death. 

The well-known passion of Hinduism for absorb- 
ing the faiths that come into contact with it, and the 
maudlin tendency of the people of India to yield to 
pressure and to sacrifice all in behalf of peace, has 
been the grave of many a noble endeavour and many an 
impassioned attempt for new religious life and power. 

Nevertheless, there is no reform movement which 
has entered the arena of religious conflict in India, 
whether it still remains entirely within the Hindu 
faith or has possessed vigour and repulsive energy 
enough to step outside the ancestral faith, which 
has not left more or less of an impress upon Hindu- 
ism, and which does not to-day exercise some power 
or other over certain classes of the people. 

I 

All of the many modern sects of Hinduism were 
originally protests against the dominant Brahmanism 
of the day. The most popular Vaishnava sect, in 
South India, — the Visishdadvaitha sect of Ramanuja, 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 377 

— was first a vigorous protest against the austere 
pantheism of Sankaran. It was the demand of a 
thoughtful and an earnest rehgious man for a per- 
sonal God which could bring peace and rest to the 
soul, in contradistinction to the unknowable, unethi- 
cal, and unapproachable Brahm, which the dominant 
Vedantism had thrust upon the people. 

The Madhwachariars went one step farther and 
inculcated a dualism, which many to-day accept as 
the basis of their faith. 

In the region of Bengal, that other sect of Vaish- 
navism, which was inculcated by Chaitanya four 
centuries ago, is to-day the popular cult. It is a 
revivalism full of wild enthusiasm and ecstatic devo- 
tion; yet it attracts, in a remarkable way, many of 
the men of culture and learning throughout that 
Presidency. 

The Saivite sectarians, who call themselves Sanga- 
mars, were, a few centuries ago, a mere uprising 
against the supremacy of the Brahmans and the 
dominance of caste. 

Indeed, nearly all religious reformers in India pro- 
pelled their reforms as anti-caste movements. But, 
later on, they have, with very few exceptions, been 
drawn attain into the maelstrom of caste. 

O 



378 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

The Sikh religion, itself, was originally a religious 
reform, which found its germs in the mind of the 
great Kabir, and afterward attained birth in the 
brave reformer, Nanak Shah, during the fifteenth 
century. It is a shrewd, an amiable, and also a brave 
attempt to harmonize Mohammedanism and Hindu- 
ism. At the present time, this also is gradually yield- 
ing to caste dominance and to the fascination of 
Hindu ritual. 

Thus every century has produced its reformers, 
and the banks of this great river of Brahmanism is 
strewn with the wrecks of protesting sects, while 
many other such barques are to-day adopted as the 
faithful messengers of orthodox Hinduism and are 
carrying its message to the people. 

II 

Modern movements of religious reform in India 
have not been wanting in number or vigour. And 
they have been largely movements away from Poly- 
theism, on the one hand, and from Pantheism on the 
other, toward a modern Theism. Many intelligent 
men, and many uneducated, but earnest souls, have 
grown weary of their multitudinous pantheon, and of 
its hydra-headed idolatry, which charms and debases 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 379 

the masses. In like manner, many of them have 
ceased to be satisfied with the unknown Brahm of 
Vedantism, and are seeking after a personal Deity, 
who can meet the demands of their craving hearts. 

There is much of this thought and sentiment still 
inarticulate among the upper classes ; but it is mani- 
festly growing with the increase of the years. 

This theistic movement, as a growing search after 
a personal God, is to be traced definitely to the 
growth of western thought, and especially to the 
direct influence of Christianity. This is no less true 
of those theistic movements which are by no means 
amiably disposed toward our religion. 

The modern theistic movement first found definite 
expression and impetus in the life and teaching of 
that noble son of India, Ram Mohan Roy, who hailed 
from the Brahmanic aristocracy of Bengal. He was 
born in 1774 — just before the birth of American In- 
dependence. He studied well the ancient writings of 
Hinduism and translated some of the most important 
into English. He also searched eagerly and enthusi- 
astically the Christian Scriptures ; for which puipose 
he made himself familiar with the Greek and Hebrew 
languages. So mightily did the New Testament and 
its precepts grip him that he wrote and published, in 



38o INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

1819, an excellent tract, "The Precepts of Jesus the 
Guide to Peace and Happiness." This is a remark- 
able testimony to the ethical preeminence of the 
Bible. He later declared that he " believed in the 
truths of the Christian religion." 

Being unwilling to abide alone in this discovery 
and in these convictions, he established, in 181 5, the 
"Atma Sabha," or "Soul Society," in his own home. 
This soon developed into a small church, for which a 
suitable edifice was erected, that they might worship 
the one God free from the contaminating influence of 
popular idolatry and Hindu ceremonial. 

This truly great man, without the aid of any Euro- 
pean missionary, in the quiet solitude of his own 
heart, and under the influence of the Spirit of God, 
rose to some of the highest truths of Theism, and, 
under the mighty influence of Christian literature, 
became a reformer of the first order among his 
people. 

But, during a visit to England he sickened, and 
died in 1833; and the theistic movement weakened 
and waned for a few years, deprived of his leadership 
and inspiring presence. 

It was in 1843 ^^^^ ^^^ Brahmo Soma] of Ram 
Mohan Roy was united with another Sabha organized 



I 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 381 

by another great soul, Debendra Nath Tagore. Un- 
der the guidance of this sturdy reformer, the Brahmo 
Soma] movement put on new life and energy. De- 
bendra Nath was very devout and courageous. He 
was opposed to the religion of his fathers, as prac- 
tised by the people. Nevertheless, he was somewhat 
anchored to the past. He still clung to the Hindu 
scriptures and regarded the Vedas as infallible. 
Later, however, as these Hindu writings were studied 
with more care, his faith in them was considerably 
shattered, and he began to deny their supreme 
authority. 

He and the other members of the society here en- 
tered upon a great struggle which ushered them into 
an " Aee of Reason." The Vedas were abandoned 
as an ultimate authority, and the Brahmo Somaj, 
for a time, became " a Church without a Bible," and 
without any anchorage but the higher reason of its 
members. 

In 1852, the society was reorganized. Reason was 
soon found to be inadequate as the foundation of 
faith ; and they passed on to an intuitional basis. That 
again seemed to be even more unsatisfactory than 
reason itself. After a few years, the movement grad- 
ually developed a doctrine of inspiration, when the 



382 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

utterances of the leaders themselves were regarded as 
inspired and became the voice of God to the mem- 
bers. Thus, within a few years, Brahmo Soma] 
moved almost in a circle, in its search for a stable 
anchorage to its faith ; and it returned to a point dan- 
gerously near to the Hindu position which it had left 
a few years before. 

The rapid movement above indicated was chiefly 
owing to an ardent youth, who rallied to the support 
of Debendra Nath, and who gradually took the reins 
into his own hands. This young man was Keshub 
Chunder Sen ; and he soon became the leading figure, 
certainly the most striking, in the whole theistic 
movement of India. He acquired growing influence 
over Debendra Nath, became the controlling spirit, 
and continued until his death to be the central figure 
of Theism in India. 

Chunder Sen was a great enthusiast, full of intel- 
lectual resource, and, withal, a man of deep spiritu- 
ality. He was an Oriental of the Orientals ; his mind 
was of a thoroughly mystic type, and, like the devout 
Hindu, he loved the rigours of asceticism, and, in not 
a few instances, yielded to the fascinations of the 
methods of the Yogi. 

He was a restless soul. Hinduism had so much 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 383 

that was repulsive to him ; and he felt that polythe- 
ism and idolatry had so crushed out of his people all 
the beauty of a living faith that he longed to hasten 
communication of his message of truth and of life 
the new and glorious day of Theism for India. His 
pace was so much faster than that of Debendra Nath 
that it took but a few years to make their separation 
a necessity. This took place in 1865. Thereupon, 
the old society became known as the '' Athi Somaj'"' 
— "The Original Somaj," — while Sen and his party 
formed a new organization, which was pretentiously 
known as " The Brahmo Somaj of India." This hap- 
pened in 1866. 

The old society settled down into inactivity, lost 
much of its spirit of reform, and has never since 
accomplished much in the realm of theistic advance. 

The new Somaj, however, soon acquired promi- 
nence and became the life and embodiment of the 
Indian theistic movement. 

But Chunder Sen had his serious dangers; and 
those lay in the very excess of his virtues. 

Hurried on by his intense nature, exalted to power 
by his brilliant intellectual qualities, and yearning 
with a passion for the release of his beloved India 
from the religious and spiritual thraldom which he 



384 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

witnessed all about him, he acquired irresistible 
charm and power with his followers, and his words be- 
came their undisputed law ; and his deliverances were 
surcharged with what they regarded as divine inspira- 
tion. And there is no doubt that he soon came to 
believe himself to be a direct vehicle of God in the 
communication of his message of truth and of life 
to the world. 

Under the influence of this conviction or delusion 
(whichever one may choose to call it), he was swept 
on, and carried with him most of his followers, into 
startling novelties of ritual and of organization. 

Finally, however, he became so extreme and radical 
that some of his principal followers became frightened 
and grew restless. The occasion of another split was 
found in the marriage of Chunder Sen's daughter to 
the young Maharaja of Cooch Behar, in 1876. Chun- 
der Sen had worked heroically for the enactment of a 
new marriage law for the members of the Brahmo 
Soma], whereby no bride should be married before 
fourteen and no bridegroom under eighteen years of 
age. Yet, in the marriage of his own daughter, he 
ignored this law, which was passed chiefly through his 
own energy. Notwithstanding the fact that the leader 
claimed divine guidance in this affair, his leading fol- 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 385 

lowers attributed the marriage to his weakness and 
pride. 

This led to another secession, in May, 1878, whereby 
the majority of the societies and their members broke 
away from the Sen party and established the Sadharna 
Somaj — "The Universal Soma]." This schism was 
a terrible blow to Mr. Sen ; and yet it released him 
from the trammels which the dissatisfied had hitherto 
thrust upon him, and gave him, among the remnant, 
an opportunity to launch out on new projects, and to 
introduce many religious vagaries, which to most men 
were striking and, to many, were shocking. Under 
the banner of the " New Dispensation," he practised a 
varied liturgy and cultivated an unique ceremonial 
which seemed to be a close imitation, and almost a 
mockery, of some of the most sacred institutions of 
Christianity and of other religions. 

The schismatic weakness of the theistic movement 
did not reach its consummation in this last division. 
It was alinost immediately upon the death of Keshub 
Chunder Sen, at the beginning of 1S84, that his imme- 
diate family and a few of his followers proclaimed that 
his spirit still abode in the Mandir, where he so often 
spoke, and that no one should succeed him or speak 
from the Mandir hereafter ! 



286 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Within these few short years a new cult had begun 
to grow around the person of Chunder Sen, like those 
around a thousand others well known in the history ot 
India. He became to some of his followers not only 
a great religious teacher, but also something of an 
incarnation on his own account, so that it seemed to 
them blasphemy for any living being to aspire to speak 
from the pulpit of the beloved dead master. 

His natural successor was Babu Protap Chunder 
Mozumdar. He protested against this apotheosis of 
the departed leader, and insisted upon the fact that 
their movement must be open to new light, and must 
seek after ever increasing progress and advance. But 
the family were obdurate, and the new split became 
inevitable ; and thus Chunder Sen has passed into the 
ranks of the Mahatmas of India and will erelong be 
promoted to a place among the incarnations of their 
deities. 

Mr. Mozumdar was, intellectually, not inferior to 
Chunder Sen himself; and he was possessed of deep 
earnestness of spirit and of a beautiful English style 
(both as a writer and speaker) which commended him 
and his cause to the public, and especially to English 
and American Theists. He visited the West more 
than once, and charmed many an audience of Christian 
men by his deep sincerity and eloquence. 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 387 

III 

The progress of this Brahmo movement has not 
been very encouraging. 

We have already seen its tendency to schism. 
There seems very Httle in the movement which makes 
for peace and unity. Any Httle pique or difference of 
views has not only created internal dissension, but 
also engendered new sects. 

The leaders of the movement have been both able 
and absolutely devoted to the theistic cause ; but they 
have not revealed the highest qualities of leadership, 
especially that quality which exalts above the leader 
himself the principles and the cause which he advo- 
cates. Nor have they imparted to the members of the 
Somaj that altruistic fervour which enables them to 
deny themselves in behalf of their common cause and 
purpose. 

Numerically, the progress of the Brahmo Somaj has 
been most disappointing. At the last census there 
were only 4050 members. And, of these, more than 
three-quarters were in Bengal. 

This, however, by no means represents the 
strength of the movement; for it is said, with truth, 
that many who do not register themselves as 



388 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Brahmos are in deepest accord with the movement. 
And it must, moreover, be remembered that the 
influence of the society is far in excess of the 
numbers represented. For the movement has 
drawn its membership, almost exclusively, from the 
upper class; and the majority of Brahmos are men 
of education and of position in society. Moreover, 
they joined this movement under the deep convic- 
tion of the utter worthlessness of Hinduism as a 
way of salvation, and with a purpose to seek after 
that which is best in thought and life. 

It is this aristocratic character of the movement 
which has largely militated against its popularity. 
Its appeal has been mainly to men and women of 
English training. It has not been possessed of any 
passion for the multitude ; nor has it adequately 
appreciated the importance, for its own well-being, 
of a united endeavour to reach and bring in the 
man of the street. 

Nevertheless, the movement has been thoroughly 
permeated with an Indian spirit. The leaders have 
been particular in their desire to exalt and empha- 
size the Oriental aspect and method, as distinct 
from the Occidental. This is the reason why it 
has been so frequently and bitterly criticised. It 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 389 

has been judged by western standards and criti- 
cised because it has not squared with western 
ideals. From time to time missionaries and other 
Christian men, seeing no reason, from their stand- 
point, why these Brahmo friends should not come 
over in a body into the Christian fold, have been 
impatient with their lack of response. They failed 
to understand that, with these western principles 
and admiration, there were also eastern thoughts 
and prepossessions, and the invaluable inheritance 
of a past that kept them aloof from the foreign 
faith and led them frequently to deliver themselves 
vehemently against its most western manifestations. 
Even their conception of Christ was a distinctly 
Oriental one. And they denied that a man of the 
West could compare with them of the East in the 
deep appreciation of the Christ-character and in 
loving attachment to their " Brother " from the East 
— Jesus of Nazareth. 

Yet, the Christian basis of this movement is 
unmistakable. We have seen how Ram Mohan 
Roy received a new baptism of thought and life 
upon studying the Christian Scriptures. It gave 
a new direction and inspiration to his theistic con- 
ceptions. 



390 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Chunder Sen found nearly all the inspiration 
from the Bible; and he lived under the spell of 
Christ's own power, and with a passion, such as few 
Christians possess, to follow Him and to be a full 
partaker of His blessings. 

The writer will never forget his own brief visit 
to Protap Mozumdar, not long before the latter's 
death. It was on the eve of Good Friday. He 
found this devout man with eighteen of his disciples 
(one of them an Oxford graduate) studying together 
the tender words of our Lord uttered to His dis- 
ciples in the Upper Room on the night in which 
He was betrayed. They were thus qualifying them- 
selves properly to commemorate His death on the 
coming morn. And Mr. Mozumdar gave a strong 
lecture on " The Suffering Christ " to a large audi- 
ence in one of the city halls on the morrow. The 
thought occurred to us, how many Christians had 
met together that same evening, like these Brahmos, 
for the purpose of studying our Lord's Words upon 
that memorable occasion and bringing themselves 
thus en rapport with Him whose atoning death 
they were to commemorate.? As we parted, it was 
hardly necessary for that man of God to say to the 
writer in pathetic tones, " O, sir, I only wish you 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 391 

knew how near we are to you in these matters ! " 
Some may have read that remarkable book, named 
" The Oriental Christ," written and published by 
this same gentleman in 1883. In the preface, he 
gives this strikingly beautiful account of his con- 
version : — 

" Nearly twenty years ago, my troubles, studies, 
and circumstances forced upon me the question of 
personal relationship to Christ. ... As the sense 
of sin grew on me, and with it a deep miserable 
restlessness, a necessity of reconciliation between 
aspiration and practice, I was mysteriously led to 
feel a personal affinity to the Spirit of Christ. The 
whole subject of the life and death of Christ had 
for me a marvellous sweetness and fascination. . . . 
Often discouraged and ridiculed, I persisted in ac- 
cording to Christ a tenderness of honour which 
arose in my heart unbidden. I prayed, I fasted, at 
Christmas and Easter times. I secretly hunted the 
book-shops of Calcutta to gather the so-called like- 
nesses of Christ. I did not know, I cared not to 
think, whither all this would lead. . . . About the 
year 1867 ... I was almost alone in Calcutta. My 
inward trials and travails had really reached a 
crisis. It was a week-day evening, I forget the 



392 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

date now. The gloomy and haunted shades of 
summer evening had suddenly thickened into dark- 
ness. ... I sat near the large lake in the Hindu 
College compound. ... A sobbing, gusty wind 
swam over the water's surface. ... I was meditat- 
ing upon the state of my soul, on the cure of all 
spiritual wretchedness, the brightness and peace 
unknown to me, which was the lot of God's chil- 
dren. I prayed and besought Heaven. I cried and 
shed hot tears. . . . Suddenly it seemed to me, let 
me own it was revealed to me, that close to me 
there was a holier, more blessed, most loving per- 
sonality upon which I must repose my troubled 
head. Jesus lay discovered in my heart as a 
strange, human, kindred love, as a repose, a sym- 
pathetic consolation, an unpurchased treasure, for 
which I was freely invited. The response of my 
nature was unhesitating and immediate. Jesus, 
from that day, to me became a reality whereon I 
might lean. It was an impulse then, a flood of 
light, love, and consolation. It is no longer an im- 
pulse now. It is a faith and principle ; it is an 
experience verified by a thousand trials ... a char- 
acter, a spirit, a holy, sacrificed, exalted self, whom 
I recognize as the true Son of God. According 



I 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 393 

to my humble light, I have always tried to be faith- 
ful to this inspiration. I have been aided, con- 
firmed, encouraged by many, and most of all by 
one. My aspiration has been not to speculate on 
Christ, but to be what Jesus tells us all to be. . . . 
I shall be content if what I say. in these pages at 
all tends to give completeness to any man's ideas 
of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. ... In 
the midst of these crumbling systems of Hindu 
error and superstition, in the midst of these cold, 
spectral shadows of transition, secularism, and ag- 
nostic doubt, to me Christ has been like the meat 
and drink of my soul. His influences have woven 
round me for the last twenty years or more, and, 
outside the fold of Christianity as I am, have formed 
a new fold, wherein I find many besides myself." 

Chunder Sen also abundantly expressed himself 
concerning the Christ, His mission, and message. But 
to him, again, it is an Asiatic Christ ; and He must 
be accepted in a truly Oriental, yes, even in a Hindu, 
way. He says : — 

" It is not the Christ of the Baptists, nor the Christ 
of the Methodists, but the Christ sent by God, the 
Christ of love and meekness, of truth and self-sacri- 
fice, whom the world delights to honour. If you 



394 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

say we must renounce our nationality and all the 
purity and devotion of eastern faith for sectarian 
and western Christianity, we shall say most emphat- 
ically, No. It is our Christ, Asias Christ, you have 
come to return to us. The East gratefully and 
lovingly welcomes back her Christ. But we shall 
not have your Christianity, which suits not the spirit 
of the East. Our religion is the religion of harmony." 

In further enforcement of this Oriental character 
he continues : — 

" Was not Jesus Christ an Asiatic ? Yes, and His 
disciples were Asiatics, and all the agencies primarily 
employed for the propagation of the Gospel were 
Asiatic. In fact, Christianity was founded and 
developed by Asiatics and in Asia. When I reflect 
on this, my love for Jesus becomes a hundred fold 
intensified; I feel Him nearer my heart, and deeper 
in my national sympathies. . . . And is it not true 
that an Asiatic can read the imageries and allegories 
of the Gospel, and its descriptions of the natural 
sceneries, of customs and manners, with greater inter- 
est and a fuller perception of their force and beauty 
than an European ? . . . The more this greater fact 
is pondered, the less, I hope, will be the antipathy 
and hatred of European Christians against Oriental 



I 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 395 

nationalities, and the greater the interest of the 
Asiatics in the teachings of Christ. And thus in 
Christ, Europe and Asia, the East and the West, 
may learn to find harmony and unity. . . ." 

And let it not be supposed that Mr. Sen was 
altogether wanting in an appreciation of the higher 
significance and vicarious efficacy of the death of 
Christ. Concerning this, he observes: — 

" Humanity was lost in Adam, but was recovered 
in Christ. He was the world's atonement. . . . 

" His death on the cross affords the highest practi- 
cal illustration of self-sacrifice. He sacrificed His life 
for the sake of truth and the benefit of the world. In 
obedience to the will of His Father, He laid down 
His life, and said, Thy will be done ! And surely 
there is deeper meaning in the fact than even the 
orthodox attach to it, that the death of Christ is the 
life of the world. . . ." 

In many of the lectures which he gave, and in 
many of the articles which he wrote, we have evi- 
dence of the wonderful place which Christ had in 
his heart and of the power which He exercised over 
his thoughts. He exclaims : — 

" Blessed Jesus, immortal Child of God ! For the 
world He lived and died. May the world appreciate 



396 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Him and follow His precepts ! . . . All through my 
inner being I see Christ. He is no longer to me a 
doctrine, or a dogma, but, with Paul, I cry, 'for me 
to live is Christ ! ' " On another occasion he says : — 

" Where, then, is Christ now ? He is living in all 
Christian lives, and in all Christian influences at 
work around us. . . . You cannot resist His influ- 
ence; you may deny His doctrines, you may even 
hate and repudiate His name, but He goes straight 
into your hearts, and leavens your lives." 

Other leaders of this movement are imbued with 
the same spirit. The editor of the New Dispensation 
remarks: — 

" As a matter of fact the Brahmists have accepted 
Christian truth in a more special sense than Hindus, 
or even some Christian sects, have any idea of. . . . 
The organization of the Brahmo Somaj of India is 
framed upon an essentially Christian basis. Its mis- 
sionary staff is Christian, being guided entirely by 
the principle of ' Take no thought for the morrow.' 
In its mission office, mottoes are found upon the 
walls which are all Christian. Almost every Brahmo 
household has a picture of Christ. The only Life 
of Jesus in Bengali is by a missionary of the Brahmo 
Somaj of India. Its truly evangelistical work, the 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 397 

life and conversation of its members, breathe dis- 
tinctly the spirit and influence of Christ. . . ." 

Another Theist writes : — 

" Reverently have I sat at the feet of the Jesus of 
the Gospels to learn the exalted ethics of the Sermon 
on the Mount. But Jesus, other than a moral force, 
the truer and higher Jesus, long remained a sealed 
book to me. Who could know the veritable Christ 
of God without light from above ? . . . 

" Jesus forms the heart-blood of many a Brahmo. 
. . . We are ready to sacrifice anything if only by 
that we are enabled to love and cherish Jesus in our 
hearts. . . . The Brahmo Somaj is born to honour 
and revere Jesus, whatever the result may be." 

From these quotations, which might be multiplied 
indefinitely, it may be seen that the movement has 
been, to a considerable extent, under the Christ spell 
and imbued with much of His Spirit. Inasmuch, 
however, as the movement is an avowedly eclectic 
one, the Brahmoist was never willing to rest com- 
pletely under the Christ influence. He gave to 
Christ, perhaps, a supreme place, but not a unique 
position, in his life and thought. Jesus was to him 
one of many, though perhaps a primus inter pares. 

It is this eclectic character of the Brahmo Somaj 



398 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

which has robbed it of much of its power. It may 
seem, at first, a very fine thing to collect, classify, 
and codify the best from many religions and dignify 
them as a religion. But that can never become a 
unified message of life to any people. It may be 
ethically immaculate, but it has no vital power. The 
distinctive, life-giving, and inspiring element of every 
faith has been eliminated, and only the common, 
unimpassioned, and uninspiring elements have been 
retained. 

Moreover, Brahmos have failed to realize that 
Theism, as such, has never satisfied any people as a 
way of salvation. It is doubtless a correct appre- 
hension of the Divine Being. But religion requires 
a great deal more than this in the way of exhibiting 
the characteristics of the Deity, and especially of 
revealing His attitude toward, and His work for, man- 
kind, before it can possess and reveal the potency of 
a saving faith. 

It would seem as if this movement, up to the 
present time, has just missed its mark and failed of 
achieving greatness and power. As we have seen, 
the leaders have exalted our Lord in a wonderful 
way, and have exhibited even a passion for Him in 
some ways. And yet they have robbed Him of the 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 399 

distinct uniqueness of His nature and of His work 
for man. They are first eclectics, and then they 
are rigid Unitarians, and lastly they are Christians. 
They need to reverse this order so as to add effi- 
ciency and potency to the Brahmo Somaj. 

It is a significant fact that Chunder Sen, with all 
his declared love for Christ and his 2:reat admira- 
tion for Him and His work, mentioned neither the 
name nor the saving work of Jesus in the final 
creed of the New Dispensation. That creed is as 
follows : — 

" One God, one Scripture, one Church. 
Eternal Progress of the Soul. 
Communion of Prophets and Saints. 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God ; 
Brotherhood of Man and Sisterhood of Woman. 
Harmony of Knowledge and Holiness, Love and Work ; 
Yoga and Asceticism in their highest development. 
Loyalty to Sovereign." 

It must not be forgotten, however, that this move- 
ment deserves much more our commendation than 
our criticism. It is a noble endeavour to pass out 
of an inherited bondage, a debased creed, a demoral- 
ized pantheon, and an all-embracing superstition, 
into the full wisdom and blessing of a correct vision 



400 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of God and Duty. If they have failed of the best, 
they are, nevertheless, with their faces turned toward 
it. And there is every hope that a kind Providence, 
through the instrumentality of Christian thought 
and western civilization, will lead them unto it. If 
they have not accepted our western Christianity, it 
may be that God has something better in store for 
them, in training them toward the realization of 
that form of Christian life and thought which will 
not only be more in consonance with Indian taste 
and ideals, but will also grip the country in such a 
way as the western type of our faith has not yet 
been able to do, and seems incapable of doing. 

IV 

The Arya Soma] is a movement somewhat kin- 
dred to the Brahmo Somaj, in so far as it is a defi- 
nite protest against modern Hinduism and is theistic 
in its teaching. The Theism of this Somaj, how- 
ever, is quite different in character from that of the 
Brahmos. 

Dayanand Saraswati was a Brahman, born in the 
Gujarati country about 1825. He developed into a 
man of keen intellect and of deep convictions. He 
also studied the Christian Scriptures and was slightly 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 401 

versed in the Hindu Shastras. He became dissatis- 
fied with the Pantheism of his mother faith ; the 
caste system grated upon his nerves, and the idola- 
try and the superstitions of the land, and especially 
the gross immorality of the people, roused him to 
deep thought and activity. He appealed to the 
Pandits, but found no sympathy or help from them. 
He found his Theism in the Vedas themselves, and 
ever after proclaimed, with great vehemence, that the 
God of the Vedas was one and was a personal God ; 
and he found an easy way of interpreting those 
ancient books in harmony with his convictions ! 

Jesus Christ did not appeal to him in the least. 
Indeed, he indulges in very cheap and gross criti- 
cism of the life of our Lord. His attitude toward 
Christianity was not at all kindly; indeed, the move- 
ment, up to the present, has been distinguished for 
nothing more than its hostility to the Christian reli- 
gion. Nevertheless, it is doubtless true that some 
of the best ideas that Dayanand possessed were 
gleaned from the Bible ; and the Arya Somaj has 
learned and inculcates some of the important les- 
sons of our faith. 

When Dayanand found no encouragement in his 
appeal to the Pandits, he turned ultimately to the 



402 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

people and founded, in 1875, the Arya Soma] at 
Bombay. And from the first the movement has 
been a popular one, addressing itself to the masses 
and seeking to bring them over to its way of 
thinking and living. In this it has been, as we 
have seen, entirely removed from the Brahmo 
Somaj, which has been too content to remain a 
religion of the classes. Like the other movement, 
however, it has been largely local in its spread and 
influence. Of its one hundred thousand members 
at the present time, more than 70 per cent are in 
the United Provinces, and nearly all the remainder 
are in the Panjaub. 

Moreover, it has recently gathered its recruits 
mainly from the educated classes, among whom the 
higher castes largely prevail; nearly four-fifths of 
the Aryas are said to be of the twice-born castes, 
which is a very significant fact. So that both in its 
popular character and methods, as well as in the high 
social position and educational training of its mem- 
bers and in its rapidly growing numbers, the Arya 
Somaj is a movement of considerable importance. 

The principles of this Somaj, as enunciated in its 
creed, are not such as to grip men with power. 
They emphasize the unity of God, the infallibility 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 403 

of the Vedas; and the general aim of the Somaj 
is "to do good to the world by improving the 
physical, social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual con- 
dition of mankind." Its moral code is of a hi^h 
order. 

It is thoroughly national in its spirit, and makes 
much capital out of the present spirit of racial an- 
tagonism. It is a significant fact that during the 
recent season of "Unrest" the government regarded 
the Arya Somaj as a hotbed of sedition and a 
nourisher of hostility to the West and to western 
things. 

The Arya Somaj is awake to the importance of 
training men as messengers of its Gospel of The- 
ism. It has established a Guru Kida at the foot 
of the Himalayas, where quite a number of young 
men are being trained in its doctrines and supplied 
with its enthusiasms. From this theological semi- 
nary many have already gone forth, in the orthodox 
style of religious mendicancy, to impart their teach- 
ing and spread their movement far and wide, with- 
out any expense to the society. 

There is to-day, in North India, no enemy to the 
Christian cause so wide awake and so bitter as the 
Arya Somaj. It is so thoroughly national in its 



404 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

spirit, is so compactly organized, and lends itself so 
easily to the racial and political agitation of the day, 
that Christianity finds in it its greatest foe in those 
regions. 

Let it not be thought, however, that we do not 
appreciate the living spark of theistic truth which 
this movement represents, combined, as it is, with 
hostility to the caste system, which is India's greatest 
curse, and its antagonism to many of the superstitions 
and unworthy ceremonials of the ancestral faith. 

That movement must not be condemned too 
severely which is a bulwark against drink, caste, idol- 
atry, early marriages, and which vigorously promotes 
female education, the remarriage of widows, and vari- 
ous philanthropic institutions. 

V 

It may not be improper to close this chapter with 
a reference to the Theosophical Society in India. It 
is true that the leaders of this movement, which was 
established in America in 1875, and transplanted into 
India a short time afterward, disavow its claim to 
being a religion ; though that claim was definitely 
made and warmly pushed a quarter of a century ago. 
It is now extolled by its members as " the cement of 



I 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 405 

faiths," " the harmonizer of religions." It is said that 
Arya Soma] became afifiliated with it in 1879, though 
we have seen no result of this aiBliation. 

The objects of Theosophy are said to be three: 
(i) The establishment of a universal brotherhood. 
(2) The study of ancient languages. (3) Investiga- 
tion of the hidden mysteries of nature and the latent 
psychical forces of man. 

These aims seem thoroughly worthy, though the 
last mentioned, under its original founders, led to 
mystical claptrap, and to the abuse of the strong 
superstitious instincts of India. 

The society was founded by a Russian adventuress, 
Madame Blavatsky, and by an American soldier. Colo- 
nel Olcott, who was the easy tool, if not the accom- 
plice, of his clever and unscrupulous associate. 

In the early history of the movement, at its head- 
quarters in Madras, Madame Blavatsky gathered 
around her a numerous coterie of ardent Hindus, 
whom she duped with various tricks and seances. 
This was with a view to convincing them of her con- 
stant communication with Koothoomi and various 
other Tibetan Mahatmas, of whom she seemed to be 
the special agent! These and other similar perform- 
ances might have continued had it not been for her 



4o6 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

French accomplices, who quarrelled with her, because 
she did not pay them adequately, and who exposed her 
mercilessly. The whole matter was published in the 
Madras Christian College Magazine^ and the Russian 
lady was speedily sent away from India to the West 
for a judicious season of rest. The leaders of Theoso- 
phy have never been unwilling to impose upon the 
stupendous credulity of their Indian followers. 

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that, with all its fail- 
ings, Theosophy has exercised considerable influence 
upon the educated classes in this country. This has 
resulted largely through its readiness to utilize the 
recent movement of the people toward higher political 
privileges and their deep spirit of religious unrest. 

Since the advent of Mrs. Besant, the society has 
been largely moulded by her erratic powers. She has 
not hesitated to use her ability and influence toward 
the creation and the development of a strong reac- 
tionary religious spirit throughout the land. She has 
bitterly denounced every tendency among the people 
toward Christianity. By her eloquence, which is 
remarkable, she has extolled the faith of India, and 
has revived and embalmed many of its worst features 
which were rapidly passing away; and has even de- 
fended idolatry and kindred evils by trying to harmon- 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 407 

ize them with modern and scientific ideas ! She has 
herself become practically a Hindu, expounds Hindu 
doctrines, and practise Hindu ceremonies. She has 
persistently maintained eastern thought and customs 
as against western, and has thus endeared herself to 
English-speaking Hindus, who regard her as the god- 
dess Saraswati herself, and are willing to give her a 
place in their pantheon as one of the great defenders 
of their faith against the mighty influences of the 
West! 

In this matter, Mrs. Besant may be said to have 
caused irreparable injury to the people, as she has 
helped to arrest the tendency toward religious reform 
and progress, and has rendered articulate and given 
power and expression to the reactionary spirit which 
is now so rampant in India. More than any other 
person, and chiefly because she is of the West, and 
speaks in the accents of the West, she has antago- 
nized progress in this land, not only religiously but 
also socially, and has done the greatest disservice to 
the people of India. In her eyes, Hindu philoso- 
phy and ritual, Hindu institutions and domestic life, 
have practically nothing to learn from the West, and 
need only to be known in order to be appreciated 
and loved ! 



4o8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

This, doubtless, in good part, accounts for her pres- 
ent popularity. 

Yet, one cannot fail to recognize the value of some 
things which she is doing. She has recently begun to 
speak with some emphasis upon lines of reform. She 
has been instrumental in stirring within the people a 
wider desire for higher education; though one can 
hardly understand why she has done so much for the 
establishment of a college for men, and has done prac- 
tically nothing to advance the educational interests of 
her much-neglected sex in India. 

Upon the death of Colonel Olcott, the President 
Founder of Theosophy, in 1907, Mrs. Besant became 
his successor. So far as the Indian vote was con- 
cerned, this was a foregone conclusion; since her 
avowed sympathy with Hinduism in all its forms had 
gained for her a strong place in the Hindu heart. 

The method by which she was elected, however, is 
suggestive of the future course of the movement in 
India. 

When nearing death, Colonel Olcott was induced 
by Mrs. Besant to invoke and to consult the " Masters " 
— the convenient ghosts of the dead — with a view to 
a choice of his successor in ofHce. There was no 
doubt about his preference for the Englishwoman. 



I 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 



409 



The Mahatmas wisely agreed with the Colonel and 
Mrs. Besant, and a powerful fulcrum was secured for 
lifting her into the presidency. And Mrs. Besant 
to-day claims that it is better for her to have been 
chosen by the dead than to have been elected by the 
living. Upon her inauguration, she insisted upon it 
that all Theosophists must cling to the " Masters " 
and adhere to their decisions. 

If we mistake not, this marks the beginning of a 
new era in Theosophy, — at least in India, — an era 
during which the movement will be entirely directed 
and worked by those who are the authorized mouth- 
pieces of the glorified dead ! Thus the movement is 
fairly launched upon a course which will inevitably 
lead it to something very much akin to a religion, 
with its accumulated mysteries and with a host of 
propelling superstitions of its own. More than any 
other land, India will lend itself admirably to the 
development and the propagation of such a cult. 

Theosophy is not represented by a very large num- 
ber of organizations and members. But the move- 
ment has the sympathy of many who have not taken 
upon them its name ; and the society, at the present 
time, is certainly in favour with a large number of the 
educated classes. 



4IO INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Orthodox pandits, however, are thoroughly suspi- 
cious of the movement ; and Mrs. Besant's recent at- 
tempts to thrust upon them her own interpretations 
of certain Hindu doctrines — interpretations, too, 
which are foreign to their own — has led to a spirit 
of opposition, where but recently appreciation and 
favour existed. 

Theosophy, as a harmonizer of faiths, is not likely 
to accomplish much that will be permanently good. 
Religions to-day have lost much of their asperity one 
toward the other. The study of Comparative Reli- 
gion has led men everywhere to magnify the asso- 
nances, rather than the dissonances, of the Great 
World Faiths. Theosophy magnifies into a cult this 
function of bringing religions together. It ignores, 
however, the fundamental differences which exist, 
brings all faiths into the same equational value, and 
assumes that they are equally effective as ways of 
salvation. 

With such profound ignorance of the essential 
qualities of the faiths which are to be harmonized, 
and with a placid assumption that these religions 
are of the same efficacy, only to different peoples, it 
is impossible to see how Theosophy can ever render 
a service to any of the faiths or to the people who 



Ji 



» 



MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 411 

are their adherents which will not ultimately prove a 
disservice to all. Peace without truth, like peace 
without honour, will not ultimately redound to the 
promotion of religion or to the salvation of men. 

Whatever Theosophy may render toward the devel- 
opment of an Oriental literature will depend largely 
upon its attitude toward truth and religion in gen- 
eral, and toward Hinduism and Christianity in par- 
ticular. Its bitter attitude toward Christianity in the 
past does not encourage one to believe that hereafter 
the literature fostered by it will be either very impar- 
tial or very sane. And yet we shall be thankful for 
anything it may accomplish in the preservation of 
Sanskrit manuscripts and in the development of a 
wholesome Hterature of any kind on Hues purely 
Oriental. 



I 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 
I 

For at least seventeen centuries Christianity has 
found a home in India. The Syrian Church was the 
first to gather converts, and it still exists as a separate 
sect of 300,000 souls in a small part of Malabar. 
Roman Catholicism, also, has had here its six centu- 
ries of struggles and varied fortunes, and now claims 
its 1,500,000 followers. On July 9, 1906, the Protes- 
tants celebrated the bicentenary of the landing of 
their first two missionaries at Tranquebar, on the 
Coromandel coast. Ziegenbalg and Plutscho were 
truly men of God, and inaugurated a work which 
to-day has its ramifications in every part of this vast 
peninsula. 

They introduced a new era of missionary effort for 

India. Former endeavours were ecclesiastical. Great 

men, indeed, had wrought for Christ in this land ; but 

their chief aim had been to establish a religion of 

forms and ceremonies. In the matter of ritual in 

412 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 413 

religion, Hinduism has little to learn from, and has 
much to suggest to, western ecclesiastics. The early- 
failure of our faith to secure marked and permanent 
success in this land finds its chief cause here. 

Ziegenbalg began in the right way. He identified 
himself with the people ; he studied well their lan- 
guage, and hastened to incarnate his faith in vernac- 
ular literature ; and, above all, he proceeded at once 
to translate into the language of the people the Word 
of God. Never before had the Bible been translated 
into an Indian tongue. After thirteen years of ser- 
vice, this great missionary died ; but he left to his 
successors the heritage of a vernacular Bible, which 
has wrought mightily in South India for the redemp- 
tion of the people. He also set the pace for subse- 
quent missionaries of his persuasion, who, in these 
two centuries, have practically translated God's Word 
into every important Indian dialect. The Bible in his 
own vernacular lies open, inviting every native of India 
to-day; and in many vernaculars the translation has 
been revised more than once. This stands as a nota- 
ble triumph of Protestantism during these two cen- 
turies in India. 

The writer has a copy of one of the earliest Tamil 
books prepared by these pioneers of our faith. These 



414 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

books have already grown into a large library — the 
best-developed Christian literature in any vernacular 
of the East. All over the land mission presses are 
annually pouring forth their many millions of pages 
both to nourish and cheer the infant Christian com- 
munity, and to win to Christ the multiplying readers 
among non-Christians. The press has already become, 
perhaps, the most important agency in the furtherance 
of Christian thought and life in this land. 

One is impressed with the manifoldness of the work 
which began in so much simplicity two centuries ago. 
The missionary is no longer the preacher under some 
shady tree, addressing a few ignorant, ill-clad peasants. 
He is actively engaged in all departments of Christian 
effort. A Protestant mission is an elaborately organ- 
ized activity, pursuing all lines of work for the eleva- 
tion of the people. It has not only churches which 
engage in varied forms of pastoral effort; it has also 
its staff of evangelists and Bible women who carry the 
message of life to all the villages. In these missions 
there are not only 10,000 day schools, with their 
375,000 scholars, besides 30,000 youth who are in the 
307 higher institutions. There are also thousands of 
young men and women, in many institutions, under- 
going careful preparation as teachers and preachers. 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 417 

There is also the medical host who treated 2,000,000 
patients last year; there are industrial institutions 
under well-trained men, peasant settlements for the 
poor oppressed ryots, and schools for the blind and 
the deaf-mute. There is hardly an agency which can 
bring light, comfort, life, and inspiration to men which 
is not utilized by modern missions in India. 

But the progress of these two centuries has been 
chiefly on lines which defy the columns of the statis- 
tician and elude the ken of the ordinary globe-trotter. 

The number of people that have been brought to 
Christ, and who now represent Protestantism in this 
land are, indeed, far fewer than might have been ex- 
pected. A round million of a community after two 
centuries of effort among a population of 300,000,000 
is not a thing of which to boast. And this may seem 
the more discouraging when it is remembered that 
there are now engaged in this work ninety-one differ- 
ent missionary societies of many lands, and supporting 
a missionary force of 4000 men and women. There 
is also a native Pastorate of iioo ordained men, with 
a total Indian agency of 26,000 men and women. 

So great a force of workers would, indeed, warrant 
us in expecting larger results in conversions. 

But it should be remembered that this agency is 



4i8 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

chiefly the product of the last few decades only, and 
is now multiplying in numbers and increasing in efifi- 
ciency at a very rapid rate. At the present time, fully 
200 of the Indian agents of our missions are university 
graduates, and a still larger number are of partial col- 
lege training. 

The Indian Christian community itself, though in 
the main of low social origin, has made remarkable 
progress in education and manly independence. It is, 
already, perhaps the best-educated community in India. 
And it is feeling increasingly its opportunities and 
its obligations. It was only recently that its growing 
sense of national importance and its duties led it to 
organize a " National Missionary Society," which is 
directed by Indian leadership, supported by Indian 
funds, and its work is to be done by India's own sons. 
This society enters upon its career very auspiciously, 
and is not only symptomatic of present conditions, but 
is also pregnant with hope for the Indian Church of 
the future. 

It took many years to lay deeply the foundation of 
our mission organization. Indeed, the foundation is 
not quite completed. And yet the work of super- 
structure has already begun, and more rapid results 
may now be expected. 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 419 

But the more hidden and indirect resuUs of Protes- 
tant Christian efforts in this land encourage the Chris- 
tian worker more than all the direct results. 

During the last century, at least twenty laws have 
been enacted with a view to abolishing cruel religious 
rites and removing revolting customs and disabilities, 
such as Hinduism, from time immemorial, has estab- 
lished among the people. These laws were enacted in 
the teeth of opposition from the religious rulers of the 
land, and, in more cases than one, led to serious riot 
and religious fanaticism. But the growing spirit of 
Christ in the land could not tolerate these heathenish 
customs ; so they had to go. 

The new spirit which has taken possession of the 
classes in India is in striking contrast with the spirit 
of the past. The new education, imparted on modern 
lines, in thousands of institutions scattered over the 
land, has brought its revenge of sentiment upon former 
thinking and believing. Western philosophy has had 
a noble share in the achievement ; and the schoolmas- 
ter has been a pioneer in the work of transforming the 
sentiments and ideals of the people. The holy men 
of India, — the ecclesiastics, — by their conservatism, 
have lost all influence over the many thousands who 
have passed through the universities, and who repre- 



420 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

sent the intelligence, culture, and advancing power of 
India. 

It is no empty boast to claim that our mission 
schools and colleges have had a conspicuous share in 
this work of enlightenment, and in the transformation 
of popular and fundamental thoughts and sentiments. 

The religious unrest of the day is one of the most 
prominent features of this advance. It is true that, 
during the last few years, there passed over India a 
peculiar wave of religious reaction in favour of old 
Hindu conceptions and ancient rites. But these are 
entirely the result of a new and vigorous, though not 
sane, patriotism. A loud cry of " Swadesha " (home- 
land) has swept over the country. It demands affec- 
tion and acceptance for everything that is of the East, 
and the opposite sentiments for things western. All 
that is of Hindu origin, and everything of eastern as- 
pect, is, for that very reason, regarded as sound and 
delectable. Of course, this reaction has found its 
widest utterances in matters religious; and Hindu 
men of western culture to-day will applaud, though 
they will not practise, religious customs and ideas 
which were laughed at by their class a quarter of 
a century ago. As a matter of fact, however, this 
wild Orientalism is a thing which should neither 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 421 

be discouraged nor condemned. It needs balance 
and sanity; but it is a true expression of the awak- 
ened self-assertion and the dawning sense of lib- 
erty among the people. In time, the movement will 
become chastened, and will throw off much of its 
present folly. It will then render for India and its 
redemption more than anything else has in the past. 

In the meanwhile, however, there is a quiet revolu- 
tion, both religious and social, doing its blessed work 
in all sections of the community. 

New religious organizations have sprung into ex- 
istence and are winning followers among the best 
members of the community. The Brahmo Soma] 
and various other Somajes furnish, as we have seen, 
asylum and rest for many men of culture who have 
abandoned polytheism and all that pertains to it. 
The Arya Somaj appeals to, and gathers in, men 
from all ranges. 

Social reform has its organizations and its gather- 
ings all over the land where the Hindu orator finds 
abundant opportunity to denounce the social evils 
which are a curse to all the people; and, alas! then 
returns to his home, where he meekly submits to these 
same social tyrannies which dominate his own family. 
What India needs to-day, more than anything else, is 



422 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

even a small band of men who are imbued with con- 
victions and who are willing to die for the same. 
India's redemption will be nigh when it can furnish 
a few thousand such men banded together to do 
something or to die in the cause of reform. 

It is Protestantism which has laid growing em- 
phasis upon the ethical, rather than the ecclesiastical, 
aspect of our faith ; and to this fact can be attributed 
most of its influence in the development of this new 
life and thought. 

Of course, the British government has politically 
and socially represented and promoted these ideas. 
It could not do otherwise and be true to its own 
principles. Its influence has been the most perva- 
sive and marked in the development of what is best 
in thought and truest in life. 

Perhaps no change has overtaken Protestant mis- 
sions during these two centuries greater than that 
which has transformed the missionaries themselves. 
There is a wide gulf between Ziegenbalg and Carey. 
There is a still wider one between the Carey of a 
century ago and his great-grandson who is a mis- 
sionary in North India to-day. In devotion and zeal 
for the Master, they are all one ; but in their concep- 
tion of Christianity, of Hinduism, and of the mis- 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 423 

sionary motive, they are much wider apart than many 
imagine. 

It should also be remembered that Protestant mis- 
sionaries, as a body, are no longer isolated from each 
other and animated by mutual suspicions and im- 
pelled by petty jealousies, as in the past. Their 
development in amity, comity, and organized fellow- 
ship, even during the last decade, is marvellous. 
Federation and organic ecclesiastical union are be- 
coming the order of the day. Four denominations 
of America and Scotland are now perfecting such a 
scheme in South India; and this is only the begin- 
ning of an ever expanding movement for Christian 
fellowship all over the land. No one knows what 
grand results it will achieve. We all know, however, 
that the fraternal regard, sympathy, and confidence is 
far removed from the sad divisiveness of the past, 
that it is pregnant with blessing in the coming of 
the Kingdom of God, and that it is far in advance 
of the spirit of union which prevails in England or 
America. In this we believe that the East is to 
open the way for the West. 

These and many other facts encourage those who 
look to the speedy Christianizing of this land. And 
yet we cannot, I repeat, ignore the fact of the relative 



424 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

meagreness of the results. It is a sad truth that the 
total Protestant Indian community, at the present 
time, is only one three-hundredth part of the popu- 
lation ! 

I would not be pessimistic, however, even in this 
matter of numerical growth. In the past, we have 
too much made a fetich of figures, and our faith 
has been too much pinned to statistics. 

But the lessons of history must be well learned and 
thoroughly digested, if the future of Christianity is to 
improve upon her past in India. For, be it remem- 
bered, Christianity never met with so doughty a foe 
as that which confronts it in this land. The ancient 
faiths of Greece and Rome, which Christianity over- 
came, were infantile and imbecile as compared with the 
subtle wisdom and the mighty resistance of Brahman- 
ism. The conditions of the conflict in India are dif- 
ferent from those ever met before by our militant 
faith. The subtle and deadening philosophy of the 
land, the haughty pride of its religious leaders, the 
great inertia of the people, the mighty tyranny of 
caste, the debasing ritual of Hinduism and its de- 
bauching idolatry, — all these constitute a resisting 
fortress whose overthrow seems all but impossible. 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 425 

II 

And yet I strongly believe in the ultimate triumph 
of our faith in India. Under God this mighty fortress 
of Hinduism will capitulate. Nor do I think that the 
day of Christian dominance is so far away as many 
missionaries are inclined to think. There is an accu- 
mulation of forces and a multiplication of spiritual 
powers which are now operating in behalf of our faith 
and against the ancestral religion of India, such as 
will work wonders in the future religious development 
of the land. But this conquest of our faith will not 
be that which too many of us are wont to anticipate 
and to pray for. The religious forms of life and of 
thought, which we of the West have inherited and 
in whose environment we have grown up, we have 
come to identify with the essence of our religion ; and 
it seems all but impossible for us to think of a Chris- 
tianity apart from these outward forms. I believe 
that there is to be a rude awakening for our children 
and grandchildren, if not for ourselves, in this matter. 

The western type of Christianity will not survive 
the conflict in India. Western modes of thought 
and forms of belief will be supplanted by those better 
suited to the land. Occidental doctrines and aspects 



426 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

of our faith will give way to those conceived from 
the Oriental standpoint. I believe, for instance, that 
the most mischievous doctrine of pantheism will sur- 
render its elements of truth (for it has an important 
admixture of truth) to the formation of a new concep- 
tion of God, which will appeal to and captivate the 
Indian mind and heart. Indeed, we are witnessing, 
this very day, even in the far West, the influence of 
India in her monistic overemphasis upon the divine 
immanence, working toward a new Christian concep- 
tion of God. Modern interchange of thought is thus 
giving to India, even in America, her influence in the 
shaping of modern belief. And if it be thus in 
matters of fundamental belief, much more will it be 
so in matters of outward expression and in the unes- 
sential forms of Christian truth. Some of us of the 
West are seeing increasingly the serious incongruity 
which exists between our way of thinking and of 
putting our thought into living form, and the way of 
the people about us. And we are not convinced, as 
we perhaps once were, that it is the obtuseness, or the 
religious perversity, of the Indian mind which is the 
cause of this. The sooner the better we realize that 
between the people of the East and of the West there 
is a wide mental gulf which may, indeed, by our asso- 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 427 

dating together, be narrowed, but never eliminated. 
And the outward type of Christianity, after western 
pressure has been taken away from this land, will 
depend upon the mental make-up and peculiar 
spiritual aspect of the Indian Christian. And until 
he is able to furnish and to enforce this, which I call 
the Oriental type of Christianity, he will never be 
able to make his faith appeal to his brothers, and to 
make it an indigenous faith in India. 

Nor do I think that the Christianity which is to 
prevail in India will be encased in the present eccle- 
siasticism which assumes and claims monopoly of 
our faith. I can conceive the possibility of there 
being a vast amount of Christianity — a living and 
a self-propagating Christianity — outside the pale 
of organized and institutional Christianity in India. 
It is so in the West to-day. The organized churches 
of the West have within themselves an ever diminish- 
ing portion of the vital Christian life and aspirations 
of the country. Christianity has overleapt ecclesi- 
astic bounds. Its spirit is overflowing, in living 
streams, into the life of a thousand organizations 
which are altruistic and philanthropic, outside the 
limits of ecclesiastical Christianity. It will be so in 
India, and throughout the world. And the Christian 



428 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

Church must take this into account and shape its 
policy accordingly. 

However this may be, East Indians will increas- 
ingly claim, as the Japanese are now claiming, the 
right to decide for themselves the forms of polity and 
the types of ritual which they will choose and culti- 
vate as their own. 

I do not say, of course, that the present forms will 
be entirely discarded. But they will be so modified 
and supplemented that they will present an ecclesias- 
tical type of their own. 

And why should they not, if our faith is to fit well 
the Oriental mind, and is to become a gracious power 
in its life? The growing opposition among the 
educated men of India, at the present time, is not 
really antagonism to Christianity itself, but to its 
western garb and spirit. And there is much reason 
for this attitude of mind. Conciliation and adapta- 
tion has not been the characteristic of the mind of 
the West in presenting its faith to the East. This 
did not make so much difference, so long as the 
Indian was submissive and had not waked up to the 
spirit of self-assertion. But to-day, when that spirit 
is so rampant, and when a new nationalism and a 
half-spurious patriotism glories in everything eastern 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 429 

and is annoyed by all that is western, the matter of 
adaptation has become all-important. 

The relative barrenness of our faith during past 
centuries in India was largely, if not entirely, due to 
its foreign ecclesiastical forms and its shibboleths 
pronounced in foreign tongues. The Christianity 
of the future in India must breathe of the spirit, and 
speak forth in the language and life, of the people. 

I am inclined to believe that the battle cry of the 
Christian Church will soon be lost in the ever swell- 
ing tide of enthusiasm for the Kingdom of God. 
Christians will seek less to promote this or that de- 
nomination, and more and more to cause to come in 
power the Kingdom of Heaven. And India is a 
land which will lend itself very readily to this transfer 
of emphasis. There is much in the mystical type of 
the Hindu mind that leads us to anticipate preemi- 
nence for India in this change of emphasis from out- 
ward organization to deep-working spiritual forces 
and realities. 

India, which has been the most prolific land in 
giving birth to religions, and in being at present the 
asylum of all the great faiths of the world, will not 
be slow to give to Christianity that form and aspect 
which will most please her. 



430 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

It is therefore important that all the Christian 

leaders of India should not only take note of these 

facts, but should also do their utmost to help in 

the desired consummation, and make Christianity in 

India a faith that will appeal to every man and 

woman in the land. 

Ill 

The conquest of our faith in India will be not the 
less, but the more, thorough, because it will be not 
only of the letter but also and chiefly of the spirit. 

There are a few things which are fundamental to 
our faith, and which will become the universal and 
permanent possession of India. 

I. The spirit and principles of Christianity will 
prevail and will dominate the land. Christian, as 
distinct from Hindu, principles are already making 
wonderful headway in the country. Many new insti- 
tutions have been organized in the land, whose prin- 
ciples are those of Christ, and not of Manu. Even 
the oldest institutions of the country are becoming 
affected by the desire to appear modern, which really 
means an ambition to introduce Christian methods 
and principles. Educated Hindus, especially, add to 
this the peculiar weakness of interpreting things 
Hindu by a Christian terminology. The philosophy 



n 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 431 

which they have imbibed and the standpoint to which 
they have been accustomed are western and, chiefly, 
Christian. So that when they study their own faith 
they do so with these Christian prepossessions ; and 
even when they defend their ancestral religion, they 
really defend not the indigenous product of India, 
such as is taught by the Hindu pandit and believed 
by the mass of the people, but Hinduism Christianized 
and clothed in the garb of the West and spoken in the 
accents of a Christian. 

Hindu Swamis, who have been educated in Chris- 
tian mission schools, and have spent a few years in 
the far West, surrounded by a Christian atmosphere, 
imbibing Christian sentiments, and unconsciously 
adopting the Christian viewpoint, return to India 
upon a wave of popular excitement and give public 
addresses and receive the plaudits of their grateful 
countrymen. But what is it that such men as Vive- 
kananda and Abhedananda, and all the rest of the 
Ananda tribe, teach upon their return to India? It is 
certainly not an orthodox Hinduism, nor is it the pure 
philosophy of the East. It is rather a strange com- 
pound in which Christianity figures as prominently 
as does Hinduism, and, perhaps, more conspicu- 
ously. What was the caste system recently enunci- 



432 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

ated by Abhedananda in Madras? It is certainly not 
a thing known in India by that name. And I have no 
doubt that his whole audience smiled when he pre- 
sented his conception of a caste system so foreign to 
all Hindu ideas and practice. It is just so with his 
Vedantism, and with his interpretation of all the 
religious teachings of this land. They are now con- 
strued in terms foreign to the rishi and to the pandit. 
But (and this the point I wish to emphasize) these 
interpretations meet increasingly with the applause 
and acceptance of educated Hindu audiences. In 
other words, a Christian colouring and glamour 
thrown over Hinduism is adding to its popularity 
in the land. 

In the general way of looking at religious things, 
and especially of apprehending religious thought, there 
is to-day almost as wide a gulf between the educated 
and cultured Hindu, on the one hand, and the author- 
ized religious instructors of India, on the other, as 
there is between the same learned man of the East 
and the thoughtful man of the West. 

Or, if we look at the multiplying institutions of 
the country, which truly represent the thoughts and 
sentiments of the leading people of India, we can 
easily see that they are imbued with non- Hindu, if 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 433 

not anti-Hindu, ideas and motives. The various 
Somajes and other religious movements, which mean 
so much in the life of India to-day, are more or 
less an endeavour to interpret life from a non-Hindu 
standpoint, which often means a Christian stand- 
point. In any case, the religious reform movements 
of India at the present time breathe largely the spirit 
of rebellion against old Hindu conceptions. 

When we think of such important movements as 
that of Social Reform, we can see the spirit of Chris- 
tianity completely dominant, and in sharp antithesis 
to Hindu teaching and ritual. The Social Reform 
movement in India is the spirit of Christianity, trying 
to express itself with as little offence as possible to 
orthodox Hinduism, and yet constantly antagonizing 
its deepest principles and eating into its very vitals. 

The two forces which, next to direct Christian 
effort, do most for the promulgation of Christian 
principles in this land, are the public schools and 
the government itself. The educational system which 
now prevails, and which is growing in power, is dis- 
tinctly a promoter of Christian thought and principle. 
We often call these schools godless ; but we do them 
an injustice. Their work may be largely negative ; 
but their teaching turns the mind of the young away 



434 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

from the silly superstitions and the absurd practices 
of popular Hinduism, and establishes modern concep- 
tions, which, indeed, are Christian conceptions of life 
and of conduct. 

The government is, in an important sense, estab- 
lished upon Christian principles; and in all its ad- 
ministrative processes exemplifies the Christian, as 
distinct from the Hindu and Brahmanic, view of 
justice and of right conduct; so that, if one were 
able to perceive clearly the spiritual forces at work in 
the institutional and social life of India, he would see 
not only that the foundation, but also that largely the 
superstructure, is becoming Christian in its character. 

2. In the second place, the Christ Ideal of Life 
is acquiring ever increasing attraction and power in 
the land. India has never possessed an incarnated 
ideal of her own. No god in all her pantheon, and 
not one among all her noble sages, has ever posed 
before the followers of Hinduism, or has ever been 
thought of by Hindu devotees, as the exemplar of men 
and the ideal of human life. To many thousands who 
are outward members of the Hindu faith, and who 
would not dream of being baptized into institutional 
Christianity, Jesus Christ has become the Ideal of 
Life. He represents to them that moral type of per- 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 435 

fection and ethical nobility of manhood to which they 
daily aspire. Krishna may be praised by the millions, 
notwithstanding his immoralities ; and Rama may be 
extolled and even loved for his limited virtue ; Yudhi- 
stra may be called " Dharman," notwithstanding his 
unrighteous passion for the dice. But Christ only, in 
the eyes of modern educated India, stands the perfect 
test of character. All over the land, Hindus of cul- 
ture, of serious thought, and of ambition to reach after 
high ethical standards see in Jesus Christ the only 
inspiration and immaculate example of life that all 
history, myth, and legend present. And there is not 
a town in India to-day where there are not found 
these men of power and influence who are studying 
eagerly the life of Jesus, are pondering over the Gos- 
pel narratives; and are reading such books of Christian 
devotion as Thomas a Kempis's " Imitation of Christ." 
This last-named book is now being translated by a 
Brahman gentleman, a friend of the writer, and pub- 
lished by a Hindu firm for its Hindu readers! I have 
known such men for many years, and am assured that 
their tribe is increasing; they are men who for the 
first time have found the deepest yearnings of their 
soul answered in the example of Jesus. 

Ask any of them for their reason, and they will tell 



436 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

you that Christ is of the East, Hke themselves, and 
that His example appeals to them with unique power. 

In India, the ideal of life has been one of restraint. 
Starting with the conviction that human life is an 
unmixed evil, the restraint of passion and the elimina- 
tion of every human emotion (the best as well as the 
worst) has been to the Hindu the goal and consumma- 
tion of life. Nothing can be more inadequate than 
this; and the Hindu is beginning to feel it. Jesus 
represents Culture and Restraint. With him the 
restraint of the lower passions is with a view to the 
culture of the higher. The man of sin must die, that 
the man of God may live and prosper. This is the 
Christ ideal, as opposed to the Brahmanic. And the 
leaven of this ideal of life is spreading all over India 
and is transforming the aspirations of millions. There 
is nothing more inspiring or comforting than the 
assurance which we have that the Christ life is becom- 
ing the dominant ideal among the classes of India, as 
it is to a less degree among the masses. 

A Brahman gentleman had the presumption to say 
to me, recently, that he and his fellow- Brah mans and 
other Hindus were able to understand the Christ much 
better than we of the West. He also claimed that 
they could understand the deep significance and the 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 437 

delicate shading of His thought better than we who are 
not of the East, Hke them. As a man who had taught 
and had tried to live the Christ in this land for more 
than a quarter of a century, I smiled at the audacity of 
his remark. And yet I knew that that man had 
visions of Christ that I had not ; and that he has a 
fondness for Thomas a Kempis's book, beyond, perhaps, 
what I myself possess. There are aspects of the 
teaching and of the life of Jesus which appeal more 
powerfully to his Oriental and deeply mystical nature 
than they can possibly to the minds of all western 
men. Of one thing, however, I am assured ; namely, 
that there is a growing host of Hindus in high position, 
and in low, who are enamoured of that ideal of life 
which our Lord taught and exemplified ; and the fact 
that they interpret that life differently from myself 
causes me less sorrow than it does a desire to under- 
stand better their standpoint of appreciation. 

3. I believe also that the Incarnation of our Lord, 
in its uniqueness and supreme power as the true 
manifestation of God, is finding rapidly increasing 
appreciation among the people of India. 

India is the land of a myriad incarnations. The 
doctrine has run to seed, as it were, among this people. 
They are burdened with the excess of their eagerness 



438 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

to find God, and with their manifold imagination in 
giving Him form and earthly existence. There is no 
doctrine in Hinduism which has been carried to such 
a reductio ad absurdum. 

Hindus to-day would gladly accept Christ as one of 
Vishnu's incarnations, if Christians would permit. I 
am not sure but that the tenth incarnation of Vishnu 
was meant to represent Christ. In any case, their 
growing familiarity with Him is gradually creating in 
their minds a disgust with the monstrosities of their 
own incarnations. Many of them are learning that 
God's Incarnation in Christ is the only one which has 
" descended " to the earth for the spiritual uplifting 
and redemption of our race ; and, therefore, that it is 
the only incarnation which has within itself the seed 
of permanence and of universality. The petty, 
grotesque, and local " descents " of India will satisfy 
no one in these days of growing breadth and union, 
when the people are aspiring after an all-India 
nationality. 

In Christ only is India finding the perfect revelation 
of God, because He alone revealed Him as the Father 
of boundless love ; God, the Father of all men, loving 
them with an infinite passion and seeking them even 
unto death, — that is the message of the Christian 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 439 

Incarnation. And how strangely does it contrast with 
the moral obliquity and selfish indifference to human 
interest which characterize Hindu incarnations ! In 
Christ do we find that God is the ever present, personal, 
loving Father, seeking to bring home again His lost 
children. He is supremely just and holy as Ruler and 
Provider ; but His justice and holiness are illumined 
and transfused by His love. And as the Eternal Spirit 
He is striving in the hearts of men to bring them to 
Himself. This is the incarnation which is gaining 
ever increasing power in this land and whose worship 
is spreading from Cape Cormorin to the Himalayas. 

4. The cross of Christ will be accepted in India as 
the highest expression of God's love to man. 

It is true that, among many Hindus to-day, as among 
the Greeks and Jews of old, the cross of Christ is an 
offence and a stumbling-block. The idea of vicarious 
atonement runs counter to the long-cherished doctrine 
of Karma. And it is possible that the universal prev- 
alence of the Karma doctrine in the land will give to 
the doctrine of atonement the same one-sided aspect 
which it has obtained among many Christians of the 
West, in the present day, whereby the element of 
vicariousness, or its God-ward efficiency, has been con- 
siderably eliminated. They may remain content to 



440 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

consider the cross merely as a supreme manifestation 
of love, as that part of the divine example which has 
infinite power to attract men toward the highest life 
of lowest service and self-effacement. However this 
may be, at present, the cross in India has more sig- 
nificance than the trident to the Hindu. And the 
language of the cross appeals with increasing force to 
all men of thought. And I am encouraged to think 
that the modern commendable habit, among educated 
Hindus, of harking back to the oldest and the best of 
their religious writings, may carry India away again 
from its emphasis upon Karma to the original, pre- 
Buddhistic idea of vicariousness, when, for instance, in 
the Purusha Suktha of the Rig Veda, the Purusha is 
represented as being sacrificed by the gods. In the 
Brahmanas, also, it is said that the Prajabathi sacri- 
ficed himself in behalf of the gods. 

Indeed, it has been well said that the doctrine of 
Karma itself, as connected with the doctrine of trans- 
migration, carries within itself a strong element of 
vicariousness ; since the person suffering in this birth 
knows nothing of the experiences of a supposed pre- 
vious birth, and is, therefore, suffering for a past of 
which he is ignorant and for which his conscience 
cannot hold him responsible. 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 441 

5. I believe, also, that the Christian conception of 
sin is gaining ever widening acceptance in India and 
will ultimately prevail as against the Hindu idea. 

The doctrine of atonement and the doctrine of sin 
are intimately related ; where the atonement is ignored 
or slighted, the conception of sin is apt to lose its 
ethical content and to become formal. India, through 
Buddha, abandoned, largely, its long-cherished principle 
of vicariousness and the multiplicity of its sacrifices. 
The consequence has been the gradual emasculation 
of the principle of atonement, until the word has be- 
come emptied of content and degraded so as to mean 
only the eating of a filthy pill because of a certain 
ceremonial uncleanness, which all the best people of 
the land know to be no uncleanness whatever. 

It is natural, under these circumstances, to see the 
idea of sin also cease to have reference to moral 
obliquity and violation of ethical principles, and to 
refer only to intellectual blindness and (more com- 
monly) to ceremonial laxness and ritualistic malfea- 
sance. It is not surprising, therefore, that under this 
double departure from the truth, conscience should 
have lost its place of importance and of authority to 
so large an extent in this land. 

But the day of better things has dawned upon India. 



442 INDIA: ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT 

The ethical concept and the moral significance of life 
are beginning to grip India very thoroughly. And I 
believe that the day will soon come when sin will 
cease to be connected with intellectual delusion and 
ignorance, and also with ceremonial irregularity, and 
will be recognized in its true moral hideousness as a 
thing of will, and not of intellect, a thing of deepest 
life, and not of puerile ritual. 

Thus, with the coming of Christ and the emphasis 
of western thought and western civilization upon 
moral integrity and nobility of character, there is 
growing also a vision of sin in its right colour and 
perspective. The gradual training of the people in 
British law and in the social ethics of the West, and in 
the true meaning of the righteousness of the Kingdom 
of God as promulgated by the Christian faith, will, ere- 
long, drive out the old pantheistic idea proclaimed by 
Vivekanada, when he said that the only sin that man 
was capable of was the sin of regarding himself as a 
sinner ! It will also make it impossible for murderers 
to excuse themselves, as one did recently to our know- 
ledge, as he was led to be executed, by saying that it was 
not he, but the god within him, that slew the man ! 

India is really passing through a quiet, but, never- 
theless, a mighty ethical revolution. Its fundamental 



\ 



THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 443 

principles of morality and of religion, as the inter- 
preters of life, are being rapidly transformed. Chris- 
tianity is sowing everywhere its seed of life and of 
character, as they are exemplified in the perfect life 
of Jesus, and are elaborated in the four Gospels, in 
comparison with which the message of the four Vedas 
and of all subsequent Hindu literature is but as the 
dark and feeble groping of the blind after light. 

These, then, are the five fundamental aspects of our 
faith which are among the eternal verities and which 
have come to India smiling with the impress of uni- 
versality, and which are finding gradual acceptance in 
all portions of the land. These represent what one 
has aptly called " Substantive Christianity," as distinct 
from " Adjectival Christianity," which men are prone 
to overemphasize and to exalt unto the heavens. 
This latter we may love and cherish and promote with 
all our hearts ; but it is sectional, partial, and transi- 
tory. The former, on the other hand, is abiding, and 
will shine throughout the ages of eternity. It will 
grow in influence and increase in its prevalence 
throughout this land until we all can say, with the 
late Chunder Sen, and with much more assurance 
than he, " None but Jesus is worthy to wear this 
diadem, India; and He shall have it." 



INDEX 



AbhedhSnanda Swami, 431. 

Abul Fazli, 311. 

Agra, 42, 308. 

Akbar the Great, 50, 311. 

Aligharh College, 331. 

Allah Upanishad, 319. 

Almsgiving in Islam, 324. 

Altruism in Hinduism, 183. 

Amritsar, 61. 

Amritsar District, 335. 

Animism, 210. 

Arjuna and his Vision, 154, 161. 

Arnold, Sir Edwin, 49. 

Aryans and Caste, 94. 

Aryans of the East and the West, 23. 

Arya Somaj, 400-404. 

Asceticism, the Way of, 171, 215, 228. 

Asia, the Mother of Faiths, 344. 

Asoka's Pillar, 57. 

Astrologer, 251. 

Astrology, 217, 299. 

Athi Somaj, 383. 

Atma Doctrine, 167. 

Atma Sabha, 380. 

Aurangzeeb, 307, 312. 

Auspicious Days, 218, 299. 

Avidia, 170, 223. 

Bande Mataram, 3. 
Baptist, Americans, 84. 
Barber's Wife, Midwife, 271, 
Barrows, Dr. J. H., 126. 
Beatitudes, the, 369. 
Beef Eating, 126. 
Benares, 66. 
Bengal, Partition of, 2. 
Bengalees and Caste, 145. 
Besant, Mrs., 406, 409. 
Bhagavad Gita, 152, 189. 
Bhagavad Gita and Bhakti, 182. 



Bhakti, 181. 

Blavatsky, Madame, 405. 

Boh Tree, the, 368. 

Bombay, 39. 

Boycott, 2. 

BrahmS, 279. 

Brahma Gnana, 170, 223. 

Brahmo Somaj, 380-400. 

Buddha, 227. 

Buddha and " Saint Josaphat," 341. 

Buddhism, 69. 

Buddhism isolated, 375. 

Burma's Produce, 73. 

Burmese Women, 80, 

Calcutta University, 6. 

Caste and Commerce, 134. 

Caste and Contact, 109, 

Caste and Inter-dining, 107. 

Caste and Intermarriage, 105. 

Caste and its Results, 129. 

Caste and Totemism, 114. 

Caste and Occupation, 98, 1 1 2. 

Caste Decadence, 144. 

Caste Penalties, 115. 

Caste System, 17, 22, 91-151, 177, 

199. 
Caste unknown in Burma, 84. 
Census, 313. 
Census on Caste, 96. 
Chaitanya, 377. 
Chakkerbutty, Professor, 259, 
Characterization of Caste, 102. 
Child Marriage, 214, 260. 
Chinese, 109, 284. 
Christ and Buddha, 340-373. 
Christ Ideal, 434-437. 
Christ Incarnation, 225, 437. 
Christ, the Cross of, 439. 
Christian College Magazine, 202. 



445 



446 



INDEX 



Christian Effort for Mohammedans, 333. 
Christianity and Caste, 149. 
Christianity — its Progress in India, 

412-443. 
Chunder Sen, Keshub, 382. 
Civilization, Western, 7. 
Cleanliness of Hindus, 267. 
Clothing, Hindu, 268. 
Congress, National, 8. 
Contradictions in Bhagavad Gita, 1 87. 
Cooch Behar, Maharajah, 384. 
Crossing Theory of Caste, 100. 
Culinary Arrangements in Hindu Home, 

268. 
Cycles of Hindu Time, 286. 

Dalhousie, Lord, 210. 

Dancing Girls, 106, 212. 

Dante's Inferno, 206, 212, 357. 

Debendra, Nath, 381. 

Dedication of a House, 244. 

Delhi, 53, 308. 

Deportation, 20. 

Detachment, 179. 

Devil Worship, 206. 

Dharma, 346. 

Dow^ry and Marriage, 260. 

Dravidians and Caste, lOl. 

Dravidians and Devil Worship, 34. 

Durgai Pdjei, 315. 

Dutch Conquest, 38. 

Dayanand Sarasvirati, 400. 

Eclecticism, 156. 

Education, 6. 

Educational Works of Protestants, 414. 

Eliot, George, 372. 

Epicure, Hindu, 268, 

Eschatology of Hindu Shastras, 185. 

Evolutionist, 196. 

Fate, Doctrine of, 329. 
Fetichism, 209. 
Financial Statement, 13. 
Fish Incarnation, 226. 
Frazer, J. G., 114. 
Fuller, Sir Bampfylde, 18. 
Funeral Ceremonies, 272. 
Furniture of a Home, 245. 



Ganesh, 201. 
Golden Temple, 65, 
Government and Caste, 1 48. 
Greek Images, 200. 
Greeks, 276. 
Grierson, Dr., 319. 
Guru Kula, 403. 

Hindu Architecture, 33. 
Hinduism amorphous, 194. 
Hinduism, Higher, 106, 190. 
Hinduism, Popular, 190-219. 
" Hindus as they are," 243, 257. 
Hindus not Historians, 282. 
Home Life of Hindus, 242-275. 
Horoscope, 261. 
House Building, 243, 

Ibbetson, Sir Denzil, on Caste, 97. 

Ideal, Divine, in Hinduism, 223. 

Ideals, Hindu Religious, 220. 

Idolatry, 176. 

Idol vsrhipped, 176, 205. 

Iliad, 153. 

Imaduddin, Dr., 335. 

Immorality in Hinduism, 210. 

Incarnation, Hindu and Christian, 163, 

200, 225. 
India, the Mother of Faiths, 30. 
Irrawaddy River, 72. 
Islam and Caste, 325. 
Islam in India, 302-337. 
Islam, its History in India, 305. 
Islam Purists, 327. 
Islam Unitarian, 309. 

Jainism, 41 . 

Japan, 2. 

Japan's "Victory, 5. 

Japanese, 197. 

Jesus an Asiatic, 394. 

Jesus and the Pharisees, 348, 35 1. 

Jewels, Love of, 285. 

Jews of Cochin, 38. 

Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, 130. 

Joint Family System, 246. 

Kili, 195. 

Kali Yuga, 276-301. 



INDEX 



447 



Karens, 85. 

Karma, Doctrine of, 359. 

Kauravas, 154. 

Kipling, Rudyard, 21. 

Knowledge, the Way of, 169. 

Kohinoor Diamond, 50. 

Ko San Ye, 87. 

Krishna, 155, 165, 195, 291. 

Kuruchetra, 154. 

Lala Lajpat Rai, 20. 

Laws abolishing Hindu Rites, 419. 

Legislative Councils — Enlargement of, 

28. 
Length of Hindu Time System, 277. 
Liberation, Doctrine of, 169. 

Madura — its Temple and Palace, 32. 

Madwachariar, 377. 

Mahabharata, 153. 

Maha Yuga, 279. 

Mandalay, 78. 

Manu, 281. 

Marriage not a Sentiment, 260. 

" Masters " of Theosophy, 409, 

Metempsychosis, 236, 

Moderates, the, 10. 

Modern Religious Movements, 374-411. 

Mohammedan Loyalty, 15. 

Mohammedan Population, 302. 

Mohammedanism, 42, 140, 302-337, 

Moral Character of Time, 292. 

Mother-in-Law, 264. 

Mourning in a Hindu Home, 272. 

Mozumdar, Protab, 386-391. 

Mutiny, the, I. 

Nana Sahib, 107. 

Nanak ShSh, 319, 378. 

Natesa Sastri, Pundit, 293. 

Native Doctors, 270. 

New Dispensation, 399. 

New Dispensation's Creed, 396. 

Obscenity, Law punishing, 210. 

Occupational Theory of Caste, 98. 

Odyssey, the, 153. 

Olcott, Colonel, 405, 408. 

Omens, 217. 

" Oriental Christ," 391. 



Origin of Caste, 93. 
Outcastes of Panjamas, 208. 

Pagoda, the Land of the, 73. 

Pal, Bepin Chandra, 12. 

Pandavas, 154. 

Pan Islamic Movement, 332. 

Panjaub — its Difficulty, 18. 

Pantheism, 160. 

Pariahs and Hindus, 209. 

Parliament, Members of, 7. 

Parsees, 40. 

Pax Britannica, 312. 

Pessimism, Hindu, 217. 

Plutscho, Rev., 412. 

Polygamy of Mohammedans, 320. 

Polytheism, 199. 

Prakriti, 159. 

Prayaschitta, 120. 

Press in India, the, n, 21. 

Prosperity in India, 14. 

Protestantism and Caste, 143. 

Protestantism, its Bicentenary, 412. 

Protestant Missionary Force, 414. 

Proverbs about Women, 253. 

Puranas, 156, 277. 

Quietism, 233. 
Quran, the, 318. 

Rahu Kdla, 300. 

Railroads and Caste, 147. 

RajputSna Mohammedans, 316. 

Ramachandra, 281. 

RamSyana, 157, 281. 

Ram Mohun Roy, 379. 

Rangoon, 72. 

Religious Theory of Caste, 95. 

Renunciation, 233. 

Revenue of Government, 13. 

Rishis, 295. 

Risley, Sir IL, on Caste, 102. 

Robson, Dr., 322. 

Romish Missionaries, 284. 

Sadharana Somaj, 385. 
SSdhus, 215. 
Saivites, 158. 
Sakti Worship, 212. 



448 



INDEX 



Salvation in Hinduism, 184. 

Sarnath, 69. 

Sati, 255-257. 

SSyuchya, 171, 229. 

Schools and Caste, 148. 

Schwey Dagon, 74. 

Sedition, 12. 

Shah Jehan, 45, 307. 

Sham, a Huge, 232. 

Shiahs, 327, 

Shradda, 273. 

Sidhartthan, 342. 

Sikhs and their Faith, 62, 319. 

Sin, Christian Conception of, 441, 

Site of a House, 243. 

Siva's Trident, 300. 

Sleeping on the Floor, 246. 

Social Reform, 26, 98, 419. 

Social Theory of Caste, 97. 

Soothsayers, 97, 251. 

South India Islam, 317. 

Statistics of Indian Faiths, 31. 

Sunnis, 327. 

Superstitions of Islam, 315. 

Swddesha, 420, 

Swami, Hindu, 198. 

Sword of Islam, 306. 

Syrian Church, 34, 140, 412. 

Tantras, 156. 
Taxation in India, 14. 
Temple Cars, 211. 
Theebaw, 79. 
Theism, 378. 
Theism unsatisfying, 398, 



Theosophical Society, 404-411. 

Thomasians, 35. 

Totemism and Caste, 114. 

Tovirers of Silence, 40. 

Transmigration, 362. 

Travancore, the Land of Charity, 34. 

Travancore Maharajah, iii. 

Travel in India, 31. 

Tribal Theory of Caste, 96. 

Triumph of Christianity, 425. 

Triumph of Christian Principles, 430. 

Ultimate Salvation in Hinduism, 235. 
Universities and Politics, 20. 
University Graduates, 6. 
Usury, 323. 

Vaishnava Cult, 158. 
Vedantic Philosophy, 156. 
Vishnu, 279. 
Visishdadvaitha, 376. 
Viv^kananda, Swami, 126, 431. 

Western Christianity inadequate, 240. 
Western Medical Science, 271. 
Wherry, Dr., 311. 
Widows, Hindu, 213, 263. 
Williams, Sir Monier, 321. 
Women in Hinduism, 213, 252. 
Works, Doctrine of, 174. 

Yama, 257, 

Y8ga Philosophy, 156, 172. 

Ziegenbalg, 412. 



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INDIA 

By John Finnemore. 12 colored plates by Mortimer Menpes. 

ITALY 

By John Finnemore. 12 colored plates by Alberto Pisa and others. 

JAPAN 

By John Finnemore. 8 colored plates by Ella du Cane. 

MOROCCO 

By John Finnemore. 12 colored illustrations by A. S. Forrest, 

SCOTLAND 

By Elizabeth Grierson, 12 colored plates by William Smith, Jr., and others. 

SIAM 

By Ernest Young, 12 colored illustrations by Edward A, Norbury. 

SOUTH AFRICA 

By Dudley Kidd, 12 colored illustrations by Agnes M. Goodall, 

SOUTH SEAS 

By J. H. M. Abbott. 12 colored illustrations by Norman Hardy. 

SWITZERLAND 

By John Finnemore. 12 colored illustrations by J. Hardwicke Lewis and 
A, D. McCormick. 

This series of Little Travel Books for Little Readers is meant to give children a 
glimpse at the scenes and customs of their own and other lands. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



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